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New York Society Library

1754 establishments in New YorkEducational institutions established in 1754Houses completed in 1917Libraries in British North AmericaLibraries in Manhattan
Libraries on the National Register of Historic Places in ManhattanNew York City Designated Landmarks in ManhattanPrivate librariesSocieties in New York (state)Subscription libraries
New York Society Library (48059130471)
New York Society Library (48059130471)

The New York Society Library (NYSL) is the oldest cultural institution in New York City. It was founded in 1754 by the New York Society as a subscription library. During the time when New York was the capital of the United States, it was the de facto Library of Congress. Until the establishment of the New York Public Library in 1895, it functioned as the city's library as well. It has been patronized by a wide variety of literary and political figures, from George Washington to Wendy Wasserstein. Its special collections include books from the libraries of John Winthrop and Lorenzo Da Ponte. Since 1937, the library has been housed in the former John S. Rogers Mansion at 53 East 79th Street on Manhattan's Upper East Side, the fifth location in its history. The stone Renaissance Revival building was one of the earliest recognized as a New York City landmark in 1967, and it was further listed on the National Register of Historic Places (as the John S. Rogers House) in 1983 in recognition of both its architecture and the library's historic role in the city. The library's collection of 300,000 volumes includes audio recordings and periodicals, as well as books on a broad range of subjects. It is open for browsing and research by the general public; only members may borrow books or use the upper floors. The library is a non-profit organization supported primarily by its membership fees and endowment.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article New York Society Library (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

New York Society Library
East 79th Street, New York Manhattan

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N 40.77625 ° E -73.9615 °
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The New York Society Library

East 79th Street 53
10075 New York, Manhattan
New York, United States
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The New York Society Library

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nysoclib.org

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New York Society Library (48059130471)
New York Society Library (48059130471)
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Kraushaar Galleries

Kraushaar Galleries is an art gallery in New York City founded in 1885 by Charles W. Kraushaar, who had previously been with the European art gallery, William Schaus, Sr. The Gallery's first location on Broadway at 33rd Street where it showed Dutch and French Barbizon paintings, as well as works by Courbet, Corot, Whistler and Fantin-Latour. When John Kraushaar, Charles's younger brother, joined the business the gallery also began showing modern French painters: Soutine, Matisse, Braque, Derain, Gauguin, Rodin, Roualt, Guys, Modigliani, Redon, Segonzac, Picasso, Van Gogh, and other late 19th- and early 20th-century artists. In 1901, at their new gallery at 260 Fifth Avenue, they exhibited the work of the Swiss-born American society painter Adolfo Müller-Ury. Later John Kraushaar began showing works by American artists, particularly Robert Henri and his circle, and the group known as The Eight, Henri, John Sloan, William Glackens, Everett Shinn, George Luks, Maurice Prendergast, Ernest Lawson and Arthur B. Davies. He also exhibited the work of Guy Pène du Bois and Charles Prendergast. After his brother's death in 1917, John Kraushaar continued the business. When John fell ill in the 1930s, his daughter, Antoinette M. Kraushaar, took over affairs. Upon his death in 1946, she became the owner of the gallery, a role she filled until 1988. In the 1940s newer American painters were added. Among them were John A. Hartell. The gallery is now located at 74 East 79th Street and functions as a private gallery, retaining its focus art of the first half of the twentieth century.

Payne Whitney House
Payne Whitney House

The Payne Whitney House is a historic building at 972 Fifth Avenue, south of 79th Street, on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was designed in the High Italian Renaissance style by architect Stanford White of the firm McKim, Mead & White. Completed in 1909 as a private residence for businessman William Payne Whitney and his family, the building has housed the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States since 1952. The house has a five-story-tall gray-granite facade that is curved slightly outward. Each story is horizontally separated by an entablature. The interiors of the Payne Whitney mansion were designed in 16th- and 17th-century Renaissance styles. The first floor includes a rotunda that was decorated with an artwork attributed to Michelangelo, as well as the Venetian Room, a reception room that William Payne Whitney's wife Helen Hay Whitney particularly valued. Since 2014, the second and third stories have housed a French-language bookstore, Albertine Books. The Whitney house was commissioned in 1902 by William's uncle Colonel Oliver Hazard Payne as a wedding gift. Construction took so long that, in the meantime, the couple's two children John (Jock) and Joan were born and Stanford White was killed. After the house's completion, William and Helen lived there until their respective deaths in 1927 and 1944. Jock Whitney sold the house in 1948 to a developer who converted it into apartments. The French government bought the building four years later. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated 972 Fifth Avenue as an official landmark in 1970. Various renovations have been conducted at the house over the years, including in the 1990s and 2010s.

Harry F. Sinclair House
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The Harry F. Sinclair House is a mansion at the southeast corner of East 79th Street and Fifth Avenue on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. The house was built between 1897 and 1899. Over the first half of the 20th century, the house was successively the residence of businessmen Isaac D. Fletcher and Harry F. Sinclair, and then the descendants of Peter Stuyvesant, the last Director of New Netherland. The Ukrainian Institute of America acquired the home in 1955. After the house gradually fell into disrepair, the institute renovated the building in the 1990s. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) and was named a National Historic Landmark in 1978. The mansion was designed in an eclectic French Renaissance style by C. P. H. Gilbert and built by foreman Harvey Murdock. The building largely retains its original design, except for a tankhouse on the roof. Gilbert and Murdock constructed the bulk of the house with brick, which was then faced with limestone ashlar. The northern façade on 79th Street, containing the main entrance, is characterized by multiple windows in square recesses or semi-elliptical and fully Gothic arches. The western façade on Fifth Avenue is symmetrical and dominated by a curved, projecting pavilion. The interior of the mansion comprises 27 rooms on six floors, for a total floor-space of 20,000 square feet (1,900 m2). Critical reviews of the house's architecture over its history have been largely positive.