General Public

Dr. King and the African American Freedom Movement

Select highlights of the Beinecke Library’s collections related to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and to the African American freedom movement will be on public view in a temporary display for the holiday in the courtyard level reading room.
NOTE: all visitors who go to the reading room will need to check any and all bags, coats, hats, and other personal belongings on the library’s ground floor before going to the reading room. Space may be limited. Last admission at 3:30 pm, and the building will be closed at 4 pm.

Robinson Crusoe at 300 Mini-Conference: Roundtable discussion: The Eighteenth-Century Novel

The Lewis Walpole Library, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, and the English Department of Yale University, are pleased to host this mini-conference, focusing on the Defoe / Robinson Crusoe tercentenary.

Robinson Crusoe at 300 Mini-Conference

The Lewis Walpole Library, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, and the English Department of Yale University, are pleased to host this mini-conference, focusing on the Defoe / Robinson Crusoe tercentenary and the 18th-century novel, led by Jonathan Kramnick, Maynard Mack Professor of English, focusing on the Defoe / Robinson Crusoe tercentenary.
Reception to follow.

From East to West: History of the Chinese Collection at Yale 1849-2019

Yale University Library has been collecting Chinese-language materials for 170 years. Six titles of Chinese classical texts were deposited at Yale in August 1849, making the College Library the first academic library in the United States to collect Chinese-language books. Samuel Wells Williams, the inaugural Professor of Chinese Language and Literature at Yale, was largely responsible for the earliest acquisitions for the Library. Yung Wing, the first Chinese citizen to graduate from a major American college, was the most important contributor to the founding of Yale’s Chinese Collection.

Mondays at Beinecke Gallery Talk & Tea

A weekly series of insightful, engaging, informal talks on materials from the Beinecke Library’s collections and exhibitions, followed by tea on the library mezzanine. Mondays at Beinecke talks take place during the academic year; note: no talks during recesses.
Speakers this semester include:
September 9: Kevin Repp, curator of modern European books & manuscripts, on fall exhibition, “Beyond Words”
September 16: Kerri Sancomb, exhibits production manager, and Megan Czekaj, library exhibits technician, on fall exhibition, “Beyond Words”

CLOSED: Subscribed: The Manuscript in Britain, 1500-1800

NOTE: Visit the Beinecke Library website to see videos of the exhibition and to read and download the exhibition brochure.
Was the pen ever mightier than the sword? This exhibition looks closely at the hand-written text in early modern Britain, and asks what it has to tell us about power, wit, and the questions we might ask of the manuscript past.
Subscribed: The Manuscript in Britain, 1500-1800 consists of three individual exhibits:

Yale College New Music at the Beinecke Library

Yale College New Music presents Shake, Rattle & Roll VI!
This concert features new works for violin and steel pan duo written by Yale College composers Benjamin Beckman, Nicholas Chang, Michael Gancz, Caroline Ho, Nathan Murphy, & Kathryn Alexander, and performed by Matthew Woodard, violin, and Russell Fisher, steel pans.
Kathryn Alexander and Konrad Kaczmarek are the co-directors of Yale College New Music. This concert is supported by the Beinecke Library, the Friends of Music, and the Yale Music Department.

Exhibit Opening: Student Research on the History of Women at Yale

In conjunction with the 50 Women at Yale 150 campus-wide celebration, two Yale College seniors have curated side-by-side exhibits on two different aspects of women at Yale using materials from library collections. Each curator will give a brief talk about their exhibit in the Exhibition Corridor followed by light refreshments in the Memorabilia Room.

New Printing with Old Tools: A Discussion with Didier Mutel

Join celebrated artist and printer, Didier Mutel, awardee of the 2016 Prix Liliane Bettencourt pour l’intelligence de la main (for his work R217A), in a wide-ranging discussion with curator Timothy Young. Mutel continues the work of the oldest French printing atelier, originally founded in Paris in 1793, honoring the traditions of the art while bringing new energy and techniques to the form. On view will be many of his works, from early experiments to his most recent productions. Beinecke Library, along with the Haas Arts Library, serves as an archive of Mutel’s work.

The Yale Public Poem by Alain Arias-Misson

The Yale campus and the streets of New Haven will literally become a poem for a few hours on the afternoon of Friday, September 27. Spelled out in letters the size of human bodies, the word TRANSCULTURALISM will set out from Beinecke Library at precisely 3 p.m., breaking apart and reassembling to form other words as Alain Arias-Misson leads a group of 16 volunteers on a perambulatory route of poetic permutations past various symbolic sites across town.