• Sky! - K!T
  • Photographers fingerprint - K!T
  • Way too cool massive carved stone Corinthian Capitals - UrbanSculptures
  • Date inscribed on negative, in reverse: 5/24/11. - Wystan

N.Y. Library on Opening Day (LOC)

Bain News Service,, publisher.

N.Y. Library on Opening Day

1911 May 24 (date created or published later by Bain)

1 negative : glass ; 5 x 7 in. or smaller.

Notes:
 Title and date from data provided by the Bain News Service on the negative.
Photo shows opening day (May 23, 1911) for the New York Public Library at Fifth Avenue in New York City. (Source: Flickr Commons project and NYPL Web site, 2008)
Forms part of: George Grantham Bain Collection (Library of Congress).

Format: Glass negatives.

Rights Info: No known restrictions on publication.

Repository: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print

General information about the Bain Collection is available at hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.ggbain

Persistent URL: hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ggbain.09235

Call Number: LC-B2- 2202-2

Comments and faves

  1. ★

    stellag, escapetonewyork, kianarama, jace.alexander, and 46 other people added this photo to their favorites.

  2. I. M. Bitter (59 months ago | reply)

    The flags they use these days are a lot smaller.

  3. Rob Scumaci (57 months ago | reply)

    Wow has the front changed with the grown trees now.

  4. xinpheld (56 months ago | reply)

    opening day: May 23, 1911

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Library

  5. BobMeade (56 months ago | reply)

    Probably belings with this image in the set:

    www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/216 3469624/

  6. Ed Brodzinsky (54 months ago | reply)

    I believe the 42nd Street Library opened in 1911. The architects were Carrere & Hastings. Great photo!

  7. The Library of Congress (54 months ago | reply)

    Thanks for helping to pin down the date of the opening. We'll adjust the date in the source data and reload the description.

  8. UrbanSculptures (50 months ago | reply)

    Have to ALMOST wonder if those flags weren't painted on the glass negative later, I've seen lots of antique postcards that I know without a doubt were altered. One PC of my town shows a trolly on Main st, but the town NEVER had a trolly, examining it real close in a large scan I can see where the image of a trolly and tracks were carefully "pasted" in along a shadow line caused by the sidewalk along the park, the quality was excellent, but the tiny seam visible only under high enlargement gve it away.

    I have a number of old NYC postcards and Moses King's old photo handbooks of NYC, and all the old buildings had enormous flags or banenrs on the roof that simply don't look like they were really there- were talking about a flag that scale-wise would be 50 or 75 feet long on a 5 story building- the sheer amount of wind force on something like that mounted on a roof would tear the roof off.
    The flags in this library photo scaled from the people who are of known height makes those flags approx 20 feet tall, so they are probably real, but still seem a bit oversized for reality.

  9. Chauncy.Primm (50 months ago | reply)

    that's crazy why would someone falsify history... oh wait that happens all the time.

  10. marysz (47 months ago | reply)

    The brass handrails that now run along the upper and lower front staircases must have been added later because they're not visible in this photo. The handrails are a necessity because the library steps are dangerously slippery in the rain and snow.

  11. chazmc4 (45 months ago | reply)

    The one flag seems to have at least 48 stars; and there was no "47" star flag BUT Arizona wasn't added as the 48th State until 1912, but the photo reportedly is from the library opening in 1911.
    It would appear "Lost-NYC" above is correct that they were painted on.
    Good work Lost-NYC!

  12. Wystan (39 months ago | reply)

    @chazmc4 -- that is not a 48-star flag. Realizing his error, Lost-NYC has removed his comment.

    Need further proof that the flags really were there? Here's another photo that shows them positioned differently, waving in the breeze:
    www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/216 2721815/

  13. Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ) (25 months ago | reply)

  14. melisa_yoo (6 months ago | reply)

    looks like the train station in philly

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