New York Public Library
The Picture-Poetry Book, Gertrude McBrown with illustrations by Loïs Mailou Jones
This year saw a new online collection from the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The Black Experience in Children’s Books: Selections From Augusta Baker’s Bibliographies. This group of rare and out-of-print books, first identified by librarian and storyteller Baker in 1946, date from between the 1930s and the 1960s. The titles “feature young black characters from the African diaspora and depicts life for children in Africa and North America,” says Maira Liriano, Associate Chief Librarian at the Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division.
“Other books in the collection celebrate the black experience through folkloric tales, songs, and poetry,” she says, such as The Picture-Poetry Book. Illustrated by artist Loïs Mailou Jones, this title was published in 1935 by black-owned and operated The Associated Publishers, which, says Liriano, was founded by Carter G. Woodson in 1921, “to publish books on black history and culture for the general reader that were in short supply at the time.”
New York Academy of Medicine
Chirurgia magna, Guy de Chauliac
The library at the New York Academy of Medicine holds more than half a million volumes, with 32,000 in the rare book collection. From this group, the Academy recently digitized this illuminated manuscript by surgeon Guy de Chauliac, known as the Chirurgia magna (“great surgery”). Chauliac first wrote the 181-page volume in the mid-14th century to record the medical knowledge of the time. This edition is illuminated in gold and silver, with ornate floral borders. The calfskin binding dates from either the time of Henry VII or the Elizabethan era, but experts have not been able to date it precisely.
National Archives
Notable Official Military Personnel Files
Since its creation in 1934, the National Archives has documented American history and culture—from the Women’s Reserve Camouflage Corps to Master Plans for National Parks. As of December 12, 2017, their online catalog holds a mind-boggling 38,213,784 items.
These vast holdings including more than 100 Official Military Personnel Files for “historically significant individuals,” says Kleiman, “such as military heroes, political leaders, cultural figures, celebrities, and entertainers.” This includes Joe Louis, Elvis Presley, Desi Arnaz, Arthur Ashe, and Neil Armstrong, and the cover everything from induction letters to medical records to newspaper clippings.