Libraries - Atlas Obscura
Places near me Random place

463 Items Tagged

Libraries

Share Tweet
He was frustratingly skilled at slicing up maps.
libraries

How German Librarians Finally Caught an Elusive Book Thief

For decades, often using a fake identity, he stole antique maps worth thousands of dollars each.
Jeffrey Arlo Brown November 23, 2020
Caltech's copy of the <em>Principia</em> was owned in the 18th century by French mathematician and natural philosopher Jean-Jacques d'Ortous de Mairan.
libraries

There Are Way More Copies of Newton's Masterwork Than Anyone Thought

A new global census doubles the number of known copies of the scientist's treatise on gravity and more.
Luna Shyr November 23, 2020
The rare logbook is now held by Georgetown's Booth Family Center for Special Collections.
rare books

A Rare Day-by-Day Document of Life Aboard a Slave Ship

The logbook is written from the white perspective, and its horrors are plain to see.
Matthew Taub September 17, 2020
The Sigtuna Phone Box Library
Sigtuna, Sweden

The Sigtuna Phone Box Library

A Swedish phone box converted into an informal village library.
UTSA adapted an image from a 1960 cookbook for their pandemic-era cover.
libraries

A University Is Turning Historical Mexican Recipes Into Free E-Books

The project is meant to inspire home cooks during the pandemic.
Luke Fater July 29, 2020
The role comes with Lynne Olver's personal collections of more than 2,300 books (not pictured).
libraries

The Internet's Greatest Archive of Food History Needs a New Curator

A New Jersey reference librarian’s magnum opus could really use your help.
Luke Fater July 15, 2020
Ian Kurtz and Reese Salen (pictured) built the bookwheel with fellow RIT engineering students Matt Nygren and Maher Abdelkawi.
libraries

How Students Built a 16th-Century Engineer's Book-Reading Machine

The bookwheel helps readers browse eight texts at once. The only problem? It weighs 600 pounds.
Claire Voon July 1, 2020
Nathalie Joachim of Flutronix plays flute on "Have and Hold," which will conclude the Library of Congress Boccaccio Project series on June 26, 2020.
libraries

The 'Boccaccio Project' Is Capturing the Music of Quarantine

The series joins a growing list of real-time archival initiatives.
Matthew Taub June 17, 2020
libraries

The Library-Themed Livestream Where Birds Stretch Their Wings

A little "library" that's literally for the birds.
Claire Voon June 12, 2020
A root system simulating a sea serpent, sprouting leaves and buds, on 15th-century parchment.
libraries

Explore the Whimsical Flora of a 15th-Century Italian Folio

An herbal a day will take the green from your gills away—and perhaps apply it to your thumb.
Isaac Schultz May 28, 2020
Verona, Italy

Biblioteca Capitolare of Verona

One of the oldest libraries in the world is still operating and contains the oldest existing document in the Italian language.
Inside the library.
Montreal, Québec

Osler Library of the History of Medicine

One of the world's largest collections of rare medical texts and ephemera.
"The package may be small, but you will know it does not need to hold the love I send, for that cannot be confined," Hildreth Heiney wrote to her fiancé in 1918. The man in the photograph, identified as John, may be her brother.
libraries

A Trove of Sad, Funny, and Familiar Stories From the 1918 Flu Pandemic

A UCLA librarian has built a remarkable collection of century-old letters, diaries, and photographs.
Jessica Klein May 1, 2020
Behold the bonkers, baroque design of the Klementinum Library in Prague.
libraries

7 Spectacular Libraries You Can Explore From Your Living Room

You can almost smell the old books.
Claire Voon April 24, 2020
At Harvard, Henrietta Swan Leavitt, Annie Jump Cannon, Williamina Fleming, and Antonia Maury.
libraries

Even More Ways to Help Librarians and Archivists From Home

As long as we're all cooped-up, here are six digital projects that could use your curiosity.
Jessica Leigh Hester April 7, 2020
It's a shame we don't yet have the technology to digitize the Library's famous Nottebohm Room.
libraries

The Ambitious Plan to Digitize 100,000 Historic Texts in Belgium

Two major Antwerp institutions are putting some of their voluminous holdings in the cloud.
Matthew Taub April 7, 2020
The Museum of Portable Sound before its Grand Opening Gala in November 2015. The tiny ribbon in front of the phone was cut with the tiny pair of scissors.
libraries

A Loopy Library of Sounds Features Sprinklers, Sirens, and Freud's Toilet

The Museum of Portable Sound normally resides on an iPhone 4S. Now, you can hear it via video chat.
Claire Voon April 3, 2020
A detail of the dreamy map of Rye Beach, New York.
libraries

Let Your Mind Wander With These Gloriously Detailed Maps

Satisfy your urge to roam and while away some time with these picks from cartographic collectors, curators, and scholars.
Jessica Leigh Hester March 31, 2020