Room 26 Cabinet of Curiosities

New acquisitions, unique documents, and visual and textual curiosities from the collections.

  • Notebooks

    January 15, 2009

    Writers’ Notebooks Walt Whitman, “Pictures” holograph notebook, corrected ( YCAL 202 ) *** H. D. (Hilda Doolittle), “Hippolitus,” notebook draft ( YCAL MSS 24...

  • Katherine Dreier Sketchbooks

    January 12, 2009

    Sketchbooks with drawings by Katherine Sophie Dreier, dating from 1909-1938, YCAL MSS 261 ; related materials can be found in the Katherine S. Dreier Papers /...

  • In Memoriam

    January 7, 2009

    Eartha Kitt (January 17, 1927 – December 25, 2008), photographed by Carl Van Vechten on October 19, 1954. Additional images of Eartha Kitt are available in the...

  • Fine Printing and Resolutions

    January 4, 2009

    A slightly belated Happy New Year from Room 26, with some suggested resolutions at the end. Items from a group of ephemera from the P.C. Darrow Printing Co.,...

  • Playing the odds

    December 30, 2008

    Examples of lottery tickets issued to support the Revolutionary War.

  • Snow Fun

    December 25, 2008

    Happy Holidays to all the Tramps and Trinkets, here and abroad. (Selected images from a saleman’s sample book: Tramp and Trinkets Abroad and Other...

  • A lamp, a bed, a chair

    December 22, 2008

    Shopping for modern home furnishings in the Beinecke Digital Library ( http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/digitallibrary/ )

  • Window shopping

    December 18, 2008

    From the Beinecke Digital Library ( http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/digitallibrary/ ) First photo and two photos above: (Van Vechten Photographs) Used with...

  • Riding the Moon Bats to Saturn

    December 15, 2008

    A marvelous volume from a genre of speculative lunar travel around the turn of the 20th century: Ville D’Avray, A. de. Voyage dans la lune avant 1900...

  • Beware of Foreign Lobsters!

    December 11, 2008

    A series of broadsides from 1715, forming a dialogue arguing for and against the presence of foreign fishermen in English waters.