THE GRADUATE CENTER, CUNY: Press Information

Nanette Shaw
Assistant Vice President for Public Affairs

PRESS CONTACT:
David Manning
212. 817.7177 or 7170
dmanning@gc.cuny.edu


September 2000
for IMMEDIATE release

Selections from the
Seymour B. Durst Old York Library

A photographic stroll along Fifth Avenue as it appeared in 1911 is among the highlights of this exhibition of maps, photos, paintings, and other visual material selected from the late Seymour Durst’s fascinating Old York Library collection of historic books and other materials on New York City. The astonishing and highly idiosyncratic collection was recently donated by the Durst Family to The Graduate Center. The Fifth Avenue photos are from a rare 1911 publication that documented both sides of the street from Washington Square to 93rd Street, including the former B. Altman building in which The Graduate Center is located. They will be displayed in linear sequence in The Graduate Center’s Art Gallery, allowing viewers to take a virtual stroll along "the avenue" as it appeared about 90 years ago Several dozen other items from the collection will also be on view in the Art Gallery and Media/Information Center, both located on The Graduate Center’s lobby level. The Graduate Center is located at 365 Fifth Avenue at 34th Street.

(note: The exhibition will have a private preview on September 7, 5:30 p.m. as part of the dedication of the Seymour Durst Old York Library at The Graduate Center. Press wishing to attend the dedication should RSVP to 1-212-817-7177.)

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P> Seymour Durst began his collection in 1962 after visiting Paris, where he found a German edition of an elaborate photographic book about New York City in a bookstore window. Eventually, even the refrigerator in Durst’s townhouse was filled with books (he ate out). He had, in fact, moved twice to accommodate the ever-growing library.

Durst assembled his library in a manner that would arouse both the envy and despair of the average librarian. It was organized by what he termed the "Durst Quintessimal System" and filled all but four of the 20 rooms in the house. Each room had a different theme and if a book fell into three different categories he would simply buy three copies, one for each related room. Some of the other rooms/categories include the Postcard & Guide Room, a kitchen closet reserved for NY Historical Society publications, the Art & Theatre Room, the Architecture Closet, the Commerce and Finance Room, the Biography Room, etc. The Reading Room at The Graduate Center reflects those categories of organization, and the furnishings include a rug, table, breakfront, and couches from Durst’s study, along with book cabinets built especially for the room. For research purposes, a database has been created that will be accessible online and will make it convenient to use the material. It may be accessed by going to the Old York Foundations website at www.oldyorklibrary.org.

The thousands of items encompass such things as an invitation to the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge, which is referred to as "the East River Bridge;" bound editions of Harper’s Weekly from 1850 to 1915; Durst’s own favorite book, E.B. White’s Here is New York; The Bowery on Seventy-Five Cents a Day; an autographed copy of Theodore Dreiser’s My City; and numbered editions of Al Hirschfeld’s 1932 Manhattan Oases (199/200), featuring drawings of city speakeasy bartenders, and the artist’s 1941 depictions of Harlem (445/1000). Among the more rare books, though not directly related to New York City, is an original edition of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense with Paine’s own edits hand-written between the lines. (See press release for more examples.)

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