Salomon Room & the Library‘s Founding

Narrator: A distinctive doorway framed by Jasper marble—a reddish-pink stone with white swirls—leads into the Edna Barnes Salomon Room, a Wi-Fi–enabled reading and study space. Quiet conversation is allowed in the large rectangular hall, originally designed as a picture gallery.

Dark brown leather chairs accompany long tables made of dark wood arranged in two rows. Overhead, faux skylights run the length of the ceiling, and chandeliers cast a soft light. Each has a simple ring of lamps resembling blossoms.

The dark wood theme continues with maple floors and wood paneling covering the walls to about waist high.

Above the paneling, adorning the pale bluish-gray walls and central pillars, are over forty portraits and paintings in ornate frames. The largest, entitled The Blind Milton Dictating “Paradise Lost“ to His Daughters, hangs on the south wall, showing the 17th-century English poet sitting in an armchair wearing a dark coat and wide white collar. His three daughters gather around a nearby table, their gazes fixed on him, one holding a quill to paper.

Portraits on display include George Washington, Library founders James Lenox and John Jacob Astor and members of their families, writers Washington Irving and Truman Capote, first NYPL president John Bigelow, first NYPL director John Shaw Billings, and other important figures in the Library’s history.

Interpretive commentary follows.

Alison Stewart: The New York Public Library’s extensive collections include all manner of objects and artifacts—they always have since their beginning.

In 1895, when the Library was founded, the resources of the Astor and Lenox libraries—two of the city’s richest holdings of books, reference material, and rare and historical artifacts—were combined to form the basis of the new public library’s collections. Julie Golia is one of the Library’s lead curators of manuscripts, archives, and rare books.

Julie Golia: The Astor Library, located in present-day East Village, was renowned for its rich research and reference books. Located a little further uptown, the Lenox Library was comprised largely of the collections of rare books and manuscripts collected by its namesake, James Lenox. The users of both of these libraries were largely learned bibliophiles and scholars, not your average citizen. And while both libraries were technically open to the public, researchers had to apply for entry, and its hours were very limited, unlike ours today.

Alison Stewart: This room was originally designed to showcase the Library’s collection of art—much of which came from those founding collections. Keith Glutting.

Keith Glutting: The Edna Barnes Salomon Room contains paintings that reflect the history of The New York Public Library and its collections. The largest painting that you can see at the south end of the hall is Milton Dictating “Paradise Lost“ to His Daughters while he’s blind by the Hungarian painter Mikhaly Munkacsy. And there are two remarkable paintings of George Washington from the Lenox collection.

Alison Stewart: Portraits of some members of the Lenox Family, including Library founder James Lenox, are on the wall to the right of the doorway.

Keith Glutting: Among the many portraits in this room are those of our founders and our first president and director. To the southern end of the room, you will see a portrait of John Jacob Astor, and it is reflective of the legacy the Astor collection holds for contemporary users of The New York Public Library’s research collections.

Alison Stewart: Additional members of the Astor family hang on the wall to the left of the doorway.

Today, the portraits of the founding families keep watch over the Library as it continues to evolve and grow, while maintaining the traditions of collecting, protecting, and providing access to innumerable sources of learning.