510 Items Tagged

Libraries

Tools fill the shelves.

Berkeley, California

Berkeley Tool Lending Library

Check out a shovel along with your Shakespeare.

The construction site where the walls were found.

Found: The Oldest Public Library in Germany

Niches in the walls hinted at the building's past.

Sarah Laskow August 2, 2018

Bibliotheca Thysiana circa 1920.

Leiden, Netherlands

Bibliotheca Thysiana

This public library and its impressive collection of academic books have not changed since the 17th century.

Old bear cage.

House of Beasts of Retiro Park

The remains of the second-oldest zoo in Europe can be seen within these library gardens.

View of the "Castle of Light" from across the Daugava.

Castle of Light

Latvia's symbolic mountain-shaped national library is home to millions of cultural tomes.

Baraboo, Wisconsin

International Crane Foundation

This unique zoo is the only place in the world where you can see all 15 species of crane.

TIBBIM puppets on display at the library.

São Paulo, Brazil

Puppet Cabinet at Monteiro Lobato Library

Dozens of vintage puppets are displayed in an unassuming hallway at the public library.

San Antonio, Texas

Fiesta Tower

Colorful curls of hand-blown glass form a captivating tower in San Antonio's Central Library.

Some old books, which are probably safe, but you never know.

Found: 3 Poisonous Books in a University Library

Their green covers meant danger.

Sarah Laskow June 29, 2018

The Sacred Heart Cathedral of Oran.

Sacred Heart Cathedral of Oran

This former cathedral is now a bustling library packed with students and pigeons.

This volume of Christian parables and lessons, <em>Colloquios de la paz y tranquilidad christiana<em>, was compiled by a Franciscan missionary and translated into Otomi, an indigenous language of Mexico, around 1600.

objects of intrigue

Why Medieval Monasteries Branded Their Books

The fiery marks were a way to keep track of tomes on the move.

Jessica Leigh Hester June 22, 2018

The Petroteca.

Zacatecas, Mexico

Petroteca of San Agustín

Fragments of the former temple's lost facade are now displayed in a strange library of stones.

Liverpool, England

Liverpool Central Library Entrance Riddle

The red letters in the literary pavement leading to the library form a mysterious code.

Edinburgh, Scotland

General Register House, National Records of Scotland

Every birth, death, and marriage is recorded in these color-coded leather-bound books.

Inside Newberry Library is America's largest public postcard repository.

Chicago, Illinois

Newberry Library Postcard Collection

Rifle through images of skyscrapers, Worlds Fairs, and more in the largest public postcard repository in America.

Rocky Mountain Land Library

Fairplay, Colorado

Rocky Mountain Land Library

This 19th-century ranch is being transformed into a residential library with thousands of books about the natural world.

Mafra, Portugal

Mafra Palace Library

At night, bats patrol this magnificent 18th-century space in search of book-eating pests.

For centuries, an older manuscript sheathed a 1480 edition of the Vulgate.

The Surprising Practice of Binding Old Books With Scraps of Even Older Books

For centuries, bookbinders commonly used whatever materials they could get—including entire manuscript pages.

Jessica Leigh Hester June 11, 2018