Welcome to George Peabody Library's Wunderkammer!

This image shows a book that is a part of the Dorothy McIlvain Scott Collection, which is composed of lovely exemplars of fine binding and fore-edge painting. This particular book has a painted fore-edge showing Pooh & his friends! Aren’t they so cute?

Milne, A. A. The House at Pooh Corner. London, 1928.
Call No.: 823 .912 M6351 1928
Location: The George Peabody Library

A beautifully captured photo of our library, taken on June 2007. Look how pretty it is! [Credits for the image go to photographer N. Barker.]

This image shows a book that is a part of the Dorothy McIlvain Scott Collection, which is composed of lovely exemplars of fine binding and fore-edge painting. This particular book has a painted fore-edge showing Pooh & his friends!

Look! It’s Tigger, frolicking in the grass!

Milne, A. A. The House at Pooh Corner. London, 1928.
Call No.: 823 .912 M6351 1928
Location: The George Peabody Library

Another amazing shot of Peabody from photographer N. Barker, June 2007.

View from the Stacks!

This is a view from the third floor of the George Peabody Library.  It’s kind of cool because you can see the contrast between the opulent Victorian architecture and the rather drab and utilitarian bookcases.

Be it Hogwarts or Beauty and the Beast, visit the Peabody Library and step into your favorite fictional world!

theshapeofme:

When I walked into the library at the Peabody Conservatory I felt like Belle did in Beauty and The Beast when she saw the library the beast had in his castle.

(Source: jesuiskrystal)

Hot Stuff and How!

Here’s a joke that certainly went over well in the speakeasies:
“Let me have a loaf of white bread, please.”
“Sorry, we have nothing but rye.”
“Oh, boy!  Fine!  Gimme a quart.”

Call No.: 818 .5202 P398 1929
Location: George Peabody Library

Dig this swanky Peabody Library view from an eccentric swanky fella!

paulmathews:

Today, I got to climb to the sixth floor of the George Peabody Library and look down over a space that has inspired and replenished me for much of my life. I first saw the GPL when I was a child.  I took my doctoral exams there.  The Conservatory used the space for the reception the year I graduated.  And during the course of the school year, I frequently duck into the GPL to collect my thoughts.  A quiet room in a music school?  It’s essential.  And what a quiet room!  There is something incongruous about such a large room with so little sound. 

Thanks to the kind folks who run the GPL, who greatly overestimated the significance of my title, I got to stand at the top of “the cathedral of books.”   And my best efforts notwithstanding, I little resembled Josh Charles, who is pictured there in a recent feature in Baltimore Sun Magazine. 

But I’m foolishly optimistic:  Peabody’s not finished with me yet. 

Yesterday the Maryland Historical Society posted a beautiful photograph of the Peabody Library from their collection.  For comparison’s sake, here is a different view of the Peabody taken in the 1890s.  Believe it or not, but with the exception of furniture placement, the interior of the library really hasn’t changed!  In fact, today’s 21st century readers even use the same desks as their 19th century counterparts.

This photograph is part of a portfolio of local images published in 1893 as The Art Work of Baltimore.  Produced in 12 parts, The Art Work of Baltimore is a wonderful time capsule  documenting 19th century domestic and civic architecture in our fair city.

Call No.: 709 .7526 P233 Quarto

Location: George Peabody Library