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New York’s Gilded Age of Liturgical Music—and How it Ended
A New York choir rehearses in the 1870s.For millennia, worship has been coupled with music. This bond often has been an uneasy one, and nowhere has that uneasiness been so openly displayed as in the...
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The 411 on Faith: Where Sacred Texts Meet City Life
So where is faith, exactly? What is the 411? Where can we see the role of religion in our lives and communities? The answer, of course, is pretty much everywhere. Religion, it seems, is all over the...
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Spencer Collection Book of the Month: Correspondence of St. Jerome
Angel from the Spencer "Jerome"When I started blogging last May, I hoped to post frequently, but my "day job" of cataloging the books I'd like to write about kept getting in the way. This year, I made...
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Religious Tolerance Booklist
The New York Public Library's Three Faiths exhibition explores the commonalities between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. But what of the other faiths of the world? There is much to be learned from...
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Teaching Religion in the Secular Classroom: Nothing to Fear
"Faith" by Omnia, a 10th grader at Bard High School Early College in Manhattan. "When asked to take a picture of what faith means to me, I took a picture of my best friends," wrote Omnia. "True...
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Harlem Library Cinema Series @ George Bruce - May 2011
Have you found your calling? The May film screening from The National Black Programming Consortium, The Calling, explores this topic as it follows seven people who feel that they have found theirs.From...
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The Music Division's Patron Saint, Katharine Drexel
On Sunday, the first of October, 2000 in Rome, Pope John Paul II presided over the ceremony that would elevate Philadelphia born Katharine Drexel to sainthood. It’s doubtful that few, if any of the...
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Notes From a Life-Long Learner: God — To Be(lieve) or Not To Be(lieve)
I spent a recent weekend pondering the existence of God. It’s something I do from time to time because I was a religious person once, in the Judeo/Christian tradition, but am not so now. After many...
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Gold, Freedom, Faith, and Baroque in Brazil
I had not slept for 34 hours. After a bad flight and two long bus trips, I was hiking, ecstatic, in a muddy mine. I touched the walls from top to bottom. Perhaps “he” had put his hands there too. I was...
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Islam in Europe: A Resource Guide at NYPL
Map of EuropeAccording to the BBC News, "Islam is widely considered Europe's fastest growing religion, with immigration and above average birth rates leading to a rapid increase in the Muslim...
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Finding Jesus at NYPL: A Research Guide
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be...
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2013: The Year of the Snake
PythonAccording to the Chinese Lunar Calendar, 2013 is the Year of the Snake. In the Chinese zodiac, the snake is equivalent to the Taurus in Western tradition. February 10th, 2013 to January 30th,...
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God in the Stacks: The Scoop on Christian Fiction
You can say it started in 1678 with the publication of John Bunyan's Pilgrim Progress. Then along came Hall Caine's The Christian (1897) and C.S Lewis'Chronicles of Narniain the 1950s. Fast forward to...
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Where the Hell is Hell? A Look at the Underworld
Hell by Katsushika, Hokusai (1760-1849)The Ancient Greeks believed it. Christians believe it. So do Muslims, Zoroastrians, Buddhists, Shintos, Sikhs, Mayans, Mormons, Witches, and few other spiritual...
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Christmas Books for Children
The holiday season is just beginning and I would like to recommend some holiday books in the library collections: How the Grinch Stole Christmas! by Dr. Seuss. In this classic tale the Grinch steals...
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A Photographic Bible Fit for a Queen
Francis Frith, The North Shore of the Dead Sea, printed in The Queen's Bible (1862-63)Francis Frith, The Pool of Hezekiah, Jerusalem, printed in The Queen's Bible (1862-63)Between 1856 and 1860, the...
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Inside the Conservation Lab: Treatment of an Engraving on Silk
Calvary - Before TreatmentAs the New York Public Library's Paper Conservator, most of the objects that I treat are flat paper items, such as documents, maps, and prints. Recently, I worked on some...
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Dando la Bienvenida al Papa Francisco
El Papa ya empezó su recorrido por Latinoamérica y tiene planes de visitar al Presidente Barack Obama en la Casa Blanca el 23 de septiembre y luego la Ciudad de Nueva York del 24 al 25 de Septiembre,...
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New York Welcomes Pope Francis
The Pope has begun his tour to the Americas with plans to visit the White House on September 23 and New York City from September 24-25, 2015, then continuing on to Philadelphia. Read about it in...
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How to Achieve Spiritual Perfection in 30 Easy Steps
All the Library's holdings are of course treasures, although some are more treasurable than others. While I'm working from home, I thought I would write about some of the treasures great and small that...
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