Room 26 Cabinet of Curiosities

Please join us to celebrate the opening of “Destined to Be Known: The James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection at 75” on Thursday, September 29th at 4pm at the Beinecke Library.

The Beinecke Library's new exhibition,  “Destined to Be Known: The James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection at 75,” explores, in part, the life and work of James Weldon Johnson; materials from Johnson's literary archive (JWJ MSS 49) reveal aspects of his roles as civil rights activist, lyricist, man of letters, poet and writer, and diplomat. A man of letters and of the law, author of solemn lyrics and popular love songs, Johnson led a multi-faceted life and his career was one of constant reinvention.

Recent Acquisition: Peter Oresick postcards.

In honor of the Beinecke Library's new temporary reading room, a passage about our permanent reading room from poet and scholar Susan Howe's recent book, Spontaneous Particulars: The Telepathy of Archives.

Stephen Vider's essay “'Oh Hell, May, Why Don’t You People Have a Cookbook?': Camp Humor and Gay Domesticity," appeared in American Quarterly, Volume 65, Number 4, December 2013.

Curator Tim Young interviews groundbreaking collector of transgender books, images, and archives, Laura Bailey

Beinecke Modern Books and Manuscripts Curator Tim Young offers ten important reasons books matter.