| Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library | |
|---|---|
.jpg) (2024) | |
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| 41°18′42″N72°55′38″W / 41.31161°N 72.92722°W /41.31161; -72.92722 | |
| Location | New Haven, Connecticut |
| Established | 1963 (1963) |
| Architect(s) | Gordon Bunshaft |
| Collection | |
| Items collected | Rare books and manuscripts |
| Other information | |
| Parent organization | Yale University |
| Website | www |
TheBeinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library (/ˈbaɪnɪki/) is therare book library andliterary archive of theYale University Library inNew Haven, Connecticut. It is one of the largest buildings in the world dedicated to rare books and manuscripts and is one of the largest collections of such texts.[1] Established by a gift of theBeinecke family and given its ownfinancial endowment, the library is financially independent from the university and is co-governed by the University Library andYale Corporation.[2]
Situated onYale University'sHewitt Quadrangle, the building was designed byGordon Bunshaft ofSkidmore, Owings & Merrill and completed in 1963.[3][4] From 2015 to 2016 the library building was closed for 18 months for major renovations, which included replacing the building'sHVAC system and expanding teaching and exhibition capabilities.[5]
The Beinecke Library is anInternational Style building. Its six-story above-ground glass-enclosed tower ofbook stacks is encased by a windowless façade, supported by four monolithicpiers at the corners of the building. The exterior shell is structurally supported by a steel frame with pylons embedded 50 feet (15 m) tobedrock at each corner pier, and the façade is constructed of translucentveinedmarble and granite. The marble was quarried fromDanby, Vermont, and milled to a thickness of 1.25 inches (32 mm) in order to allow filtered daylight to permeate the interior in a subtle golden amber glow. Gordon Bunshaft attributed the inspiration for this effect to "what I thought wasonyx in a Renaissance-type palace inIstanbul,"[6] referring to thealabaster used in theDolmabahçe Palacehammam.[7]
These panels are framed by a hexagonal grid of Vermont Woodbury granite veneer, fastened to a structural steel frame. The outside dimensions havePlatonic mathematical proportions of 1:2:3 (height: width: length).[8] The building has been called a "jewel box",[9][10] "treasure casket" (by Bunshaft himself),[6] and a "laboratory for the humanities".[2] It contains furniture designed byFlorence Knoll andMarcel Breuer.[11]
An elevated public exhibition mezzanine surrounds the glass stack tower, and displays among other things, one of the 48 extant copies of theGutenberg Bible.[10] Two basement floors extend under much of Hewitt Quadrangle. The first sub-grade level, the "Court" level, centers on asunken courtyard in front of the Beinecke, which featuresThe Garden (Pyramid, Sun, and Cube). These are abstract allegorical sculptures byIsamu Noguchi that are said to represent time (the pyramid), sun (the disc), and chance (the cube).[12] This level also features a securereading room for visiting researchers, administrative offices, and book storage areas. The level of the building two floors below ground hasmovable-aisle high-density shelving for books and archives.[13]
The Beinecke is one of the larger buildings in America devoted entirely to rare books and manuscripts.[1] The library has room in the central tower for 180,000 volumes and room for over 1 million volumes in the underground book stacks.[1] The library's collection, which is housed both in the library's main building and at Yale University's Library Shelving Facility inHamden, Connecticut, totals roughly 1 million volumes and several million manuscripts.[1]
During the 1960s, theClaes Oldenburg sculptureLipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks was displayed in Hewitt Quadrangle. The sculpture has since been moved to the courtyard ofMorse College, one of the university's residential dormitories.
The design of the Beinecke Library later inspired the glass-walled structure that protects and displays the original core collection (the books given byKing George III and referred to as theKing's Library) within theBritish Library building inEuston,London.[14]
In the late 19th century, rare and valuable books of theLibrary of Yale College were placed on special shelving at the College Library, now known asDwight Hall. When the university received a multimillion-dollar bequest fromJohn W. Sterling for the construction ofSterling Memorial Library in 1918, the university decided to create a dedicated reading room for its rare books, which became the building's Rare Book Room when the building opened in 1930. Because the bequest did not contain an allowance for books or materials, Yale English professorChauncey Brewster Tinker petitioned Yale alumni to donate materials that would give the university a collection as monumental as its new building.[15] By the time Sterling opened, Tinker's appeal garnered an impressive collection of rare books, including aGutenberg Bible fromAnna M. Harkness and several major collections from the Beinecke family, most notably its collection on the American West.[15]
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By 1958, the library owned more than 130,000 rare volumes and many more manuscripts.[15] The amassed collection proved too large for Sterling's reading room, and the reading room unsuited to their preservation. Having already given significant collections to Yale, Edwin andFrederick W. Beinecke—as well as Johanna Weigle, widow of their brother Walter—gave funds to build a dedicated rare books library building.[16] When the Beinecke Library opened on October 14, 1963, it became the home of the volumes from Rare Book Room, and three special collections: the Collection of American Literature, the Collection of Western Americana, and the Collection of German Literature. Shortly afterward, they were joined by the James Marshall and Marie-Louise Osborn Collection.
Beinecke Library became the repository for books in the Yale collection printed anywhere before 1800, books printed in Latin America before 1751, books printed in North America before 1821, newspapers and broadsides printed in the United States before 1851, European tracts and pamphlets printed before 1801, and Slavic, East European, Near and Middle Eastern books through the eighteenth century, as well as special books outside these categories.
Now, the collection spans through to the present day, including such modern works as limited-edition poetry andartists' books. The library also contains thousands of linear feet of archival material, ranging from ancientpapyri and medieval manuscripts to thearchived personal papers of modern writers.
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The library is open to all Yale University students and faculty, and to visiting researchers whose work requires use of its special collections. In order to access materials, there are a few forms and policies that users must read.[17]
The Beinecke Library also hold several hundred items from special collections institutionPequot Library. The collection consists largely of correspondence and documents from the colonial, revolutionary, Federal, andantebellum periods, extending well into thepostbellum era.[18]
The holdings of the Beinecke Library include:
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In addition to items on permanent display such as theGutenberg Bible, the Beinecke offers a year-round program of temporary exhibits drawn from its collections.[20] For example, in 2006 the library presentedBreaking the Binding: Printing and the Third Dimension, a show of flap books,pop-ups, perspective books, panoramas, and peep-shows in printed form.[21] Display cases are located on the mezzanine level and at the ground floor entry level, and may be freely viewed by the general public whenever the library is open.
The Library celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2013.[22] There were two full-year exhibitions that explored the library's architecture and people as well as a series of showcases of rarely seen manuscripts, printed works, and visual objects from across all curatorial areas.[23]
The Beinecke collection does not circulate; all materials are to be consulted in the reading room. The library hosts almost 10,000 research visits annually, almost half of which are with scholars having no formal affiliation to Yale University.[1]
Security measures were significantly increased after the well-knownantiques dealerEdward Forbes Smiley III was caught cutting maps from rare books with anX-acto blade in 2005. Smiley's scheme was discovered when he dropped his concealed tool in the reading room, and he subsequently served several years in prison for thefts of rare documents valued in millions of dollars from the Beinecke and other libraries.[24] The library operates under aclosed stack system, and rigorous security rules now allow carefully controlled access to materials undervideo surveillance.[25]
The glass-enclosed central stacks (not accessible to the public) can be flooded with a mix ofHalon 1301 andInergen fire suppressant gas if fire detectors are triggered.[26] A previous system usingcarbon dioxide was removed for personnel safety reasons.[27]
After an infestation of thedeath watch beetle was discovered in 1977, the Beinecke Library helped pioneer the non-toxic method of controlling paper-eating pests by freezing books and documents at −33 °F (−36 °C) for three days. All new acquisitions are given this treatment as a precaution, and the deep freeze method is now widely accepted for pest control in special collections libraries.[13][26][28]
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