Typography places to visit in NY?

Fernando Díaz
Fernando Díaz Posts: 133
in Education
Hi everyone,

If everything goes well, I'm planning on going to NY on June-August, and want to visit some type places.
Where should I go?

Hope I can get through customs hehe,
Thank you!

PS: I think there was a list of museums of typography somewhere, but I could not find it on the search engine.

Comments

  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 0
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  • Fernando Díaz
    Fernando Díaz Posts: 133
    Thank you James, I will check them out!
  • Dave Crossland
    Dave Crossland Posts: 1,431
    Type Thursdays! :) 
  • Fernando Díaz
    Fernando Díaz Posts: 133
    That sounds Awesomeee!
  • James Puckett
    James Puckett Posts: 2,001
    Greenwood cemetery has an abundance of amazing inscribed lettering.
  • Kent Lew
    Kent Lew Posts: 959
    Grolier Club (grolierclub.org). Looks like there will be a calligraphy exhibition, curated by Jerry Kelly, when you’re going to be there. (Not typography per se, of course, but probably of interest.)
  • Wes Adams
    Wes Adams Posts: 59
    edited February 2017
    Greenwood cemetery has about a dozen 18th century stones in the center of the park, in keeping with what you find in abundance in New England. The majority of the stones are industrial/post industrial and as such are less expressive. The new stuff is sandblasted, unfortunately. New plots are expensive and their current managment is hard to deal with.

    There's good carving at St John the Divine, in the poet's corner. Nils Kullesteid is doing the donor wall at the Met and has been for years. There's also a remarkable JHB tablet hanging on the first floor by the stairs, and another at a staircase in the ancient Meditteranean room.

    Was just at the Morgan and would be keen to know what I might have missed. They have an old Gutenberg on display. Some roman types in displayed volumes were by Garamond, also a Haultin and many more, mostly 19th century.

    The best US cities to see finely carved letters are Boston, MA; Newport, RI; and Washington DC.
  • Max Phillips
    Max Phillips Posts: 474
    The Rose Reading Room at the New York Public Library (worth seeing in itself) has a pristine Gutenburg Bible in the anteroom, in the left corner as you go in (or used to when I lived there 3 years ago).  The Special Collections upstairs often have gorgeous printed matter and ephemera on display.  And the building itself is pretty wonderful.
  • Craig Eliason
    Craig Eliason Posts: 1,442
    edited February 2017
    Walked through Greenwood today (this was a timely thread, coinciding with my trip to NYC). Wes's description above hits the mark pretty well. There was the usual frustration that the older (and, generally, thus more interesting) lettering was correspondingly weathered and really hard to make out. 

    My favorite memorial was this one to Peter Cooper, which featured four large surfaces expertly carved with inscriptional caps enlivened by a leaning S.
  • James Puckett
    James Puckett Posts: 2,001
    Soho and Noho are fun if you like nineteenth century stuff. Most blocks have one or two examples of carved lettering or lettering cast in iron. But you will have to walk a lot to see it.

    And the subway is full of great tile mosaics and old enamel signs. Usually in out of the way places.
  • Dan Reynolds
    Dan Reynolds Posts: 176
    Max Phillips said:
    The Rose Reading Room at the New York Public Library (worth seeing in itself) has a pristine Gutenburg Bible in the anteroom, in the left corner as you go in (or used to when I lived there 3 years ago).  The Special Collections upstairs often have gorgeous printed matter and ephemera on display.  And the building itself is pretty wonderful.
    I was reading an article about Gutenberg bibles while I was Mainz two weeks ago (sorry! I didn’t write down the source :'( ), and the article I was reading included a photo of that Gutenberg bible in the NYPL Reading Room. The image’s caption stated that this was a facsimile. I saw the bible in the NYPL Reading Room myself, on a quick swing through New York a couple of years ago, and I was under the impression that this was the Gutenberg Bible from the NYPL’s holdings, and not a facsimile reprinting. Does anyone know more about this? Of course, the article could have been incorrect (although the Mainzers do know a thing or two about Gutenberg bibles … ).
  • Chris Lozos
    Chris Lozos Posts: 1,458
    There are a few original prints of the Gut. Bible in the World, like the one I have seen here in Washington.  I am pretty sure that the NY copy is real as well.
  • James Puckett
    James Puckett Posts: 2,001
    Maybe the NYPL displays a facsimile when they have to remove the original from display.
  • Dan Reynolds
    Dan Reynolds Posts: 176
    Chris Lozos said:
    There are a few original prints of the Gut. Bible in the World, like the one I have seen here in Washington.  I am pretty sure that the NY copy is real as well.
    Chris! There are indeed 11 Gutenberg Bibles in the United States (according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutenberg_Bible#Surviving_copies). That includes four in New York City. Three are at the Morgan Library, and the fourth is in the collection of the NYPL. I did not doubt that the NYPL has one; I was just curious if the Gutenberg Bible on display was that real edition, or a facsimile.

    You are lucky in DC. The Library of Congress has a complete Gutenberg Bible, printed on velum. As you wrote, all Gutenberg Bibles are rare, that that is very, very rare.
  • Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian
    Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian Posts: 2,044
    I've seen the one at the Huntington Library, and apparently it's one of the eleven surviving vellum ones.
  • Chris Lozos
    Chris Lozos Posts: 1,458
    Vellum is so gorgeous to see!
  • MatteoBologna
    MatteoBologna Posts: 5
    June 16 and 17 will be the third year of the conference Typographics at Cooper Union.
    The site is not up yet but you can get tickets here     https://www.eventbrite.com/e/typographics-tickets-29731375344
    Also the Type Directors Club Library has some interesting books.
  • Dan Reynolds
    Dan Reynolds Posts: 176
    I can also recommend the monthly Typophiles luncheons at the Grolier Club (http://typophiles.org/). And no one has mentioned the rare book book at The Strand bookstore yet!
  • James Puckett
    James Puckett Posts: 2,001
    Dan Reynolds said:
    And no one has mentioned the rare book book at The Strand bookstore yet!
    Strand moved most of the typography stuff out of books about books in the rare books room and added a typography subsection to the design section on the second floor. So now you can score type books after dark! But the rare books room is still nice for cheap renaissance volumes. Last time I was there they had some seventeenth century French stuff in the breakers pile for $10 and eighteenth century stuff on the shelves for $25. 

    Strand doesn’t get many legitimately rare books, and they overprice what they do get. If you want to see or buy the good stuff check out rare book dealers uptown. Argosy is a cool little shop. Bauman is gorgeous and it’s wonderful just to walk around in. But you’ll need deep pockets to buy anything. 

    Mast books on the lower is side is a great little beat bookstore that carries high end art and design books. It’s pricey, but they have a discerning eye, so you can find stuff in much better condition than you’ll often get online. I’ve picked up new old stock of out of print stuff there. 

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