Yale's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library opened its doors 50 years ago this month. The library is celebrating this weekend with a series of events that incorporate items from their collection.
When the Beinecke Library opened in 1963, it was the largest building in the world housing and preserving rare books and documents. "When the building opened," said Timothy Young, curator of modern books and manuscripts at the library, "basically anything that was precious and rare at Yale, because of its condition or age, was brought to live within the walls of Beinecke."
Beinecke has a series of 50th anniversary events planned this weekend that pay tribute to its vast collection, including a sound installation by Yale composer Matthew Suttor called "HxWxL." It's a work that uses sounds and music from the library's collection.
On Friday afternoon, Italian novelist Umberto Eco will give a lecture at the Yale University Art Gallery called, "The Library as a Model for Culture: Preserving, Filtering, Deleting, and Recovering." Saturday evening's gala concert at Sprague Memorial Hall features performances of music manuscripts and music set to poetry belonging to the Beinecke library. All events are free and open to the public.
