The Library After Hours: Picture This

The city’s most cerebral happy hour turns the clock back to the 1840s for a night of art, science, and a celebration of an early photographic pioneer.

Picture this: it’s 19th-century England, and you want to share your vast collection of algaes with the world—but how? If you were a daring and creative botanist/photographer named Anna Atkins, you turned to a new photographic process called cyanotype and created a landmark book called Photographs of British Algae. Two new exhibitions at the Library survey Atkins’s work and the 175 years of inventive and technical innovation she paved the way for. The Library After Hours gets in on the act with an array of crafts, talks, and activities that look back to photography’s past and gaze forward into the medium’s future.

Picture This will include:

• Instagram challenge! Thousands of people photograph our reading rooms every day. Roam the building to snap the most curious and original shots of the Rose Main Reading Room and beyond—the winners will be featured on NYPL’s Instagram stories.


• View the Library’s latest exhibitions, Blue Prints: The Pioneering Photographs of Anna Atkins and Anna Atkins Refracted: Contemporary Works


• Curator and artist talks that take you behind the exhibitions to learn the story of Anna Atkins and the artists she inspired


• Nature illustration workshop with Fiona Robinson 


• Curated selection of 16mm films pulled from our archives


• Quiet room with games, coloring, and puzzles


• Food & drinks available for purchase

21+ | ID required | #NYPLafterhours

Tickets

A limited number of Priority Advanced Tickets are available.  Priority ticketing grants you entry beginning at 7 PM, giving you more time to maximize your experience exploring the Library. When you purchase a Priority Advanced Ticket, it benefits the Library and helps make this event—and others like it—possible. It also grants you 10% off at the bar and Library Shop during the event.

Pay What You Wish entry will begin at 8 PM, with a suggested admission price of $15. 

Sign up to be notified about future events. 

21+ | ID required | #NYPLafterhours

Lines start forming at 5th Ave in advance of the event. 

The Library After Hours is made possible with the generous support of Mahnaz Ispahani Bartos and Adam Bartos.

Accessible entrance available at 42nd Street. 

No refunds.