The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library is the rare book library and literary archive of the Yale University Library in New Haven, Connecticut. It is one of the largest buildings in the world dedicated to rare books and manuscripts and is one of the largest collections of such texts. Established by a gift of the Beinecke family and given its own financial endowment, the library is financially independent from the university and is co-governed by the University Library and Yale Corporation.
Carl Van Vechten was an American writer and artistic photographer who was a patron of the Harlem Renaissance and the literary executor of Gertrude Stein. He gained fame as a writer, and notoriety as well, for his 1926 novel Nigger Heaven. In his later years, he took up photography and took many portraits of notable people. Although he was married to women for most of his adult years, Van Vechten engaged in numerous homosexual affairs over his lifetime.
Basil Champneys was an English architect and author whose most notable buildings include Manchester's John Rylands Library, Somerville College Library (Oxford), Newnham College, Cambridge, Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, Mansfield College, Oxford and Oriel College, Oxford's Rhodes Building.
Paul Leopold Rosenfeld was an American journalist, best known as a music critic.
Kurt Wolff was a German publisher, editor, writer, and journalist.
The Yale University Library is the library system of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Originating in 1701 with the gift of several dozen books to a new “Collegiate School," the library's collection now contains approximately 14.9 million volumes housed in fifteen university buildings and is the third-largest academic library system in North America and the second-largest housed on a singular campus.
Edward Forbes Smiley III is an American former rare map dealer and convicted art thief. He was found guilty in 2006 of stealing 97 rare maps originally valued at more than US$3 million, and sentenced to 42 months in prison.
Otto F. Ege (1888–1951) was a teacher, lecturer, bookseller, and well-known book-breaker. He worked for many years at the Cleveland Institute of Art where he served as Chair of the Department of Teacher Training, instructor of Lettering, Layout, and Typography, and Dean. He was also employed by the School of Library Science at Case Western Reserve University as a lecturer on the History of the Book, and instructor of History and Art of the Book.
Olivia Rossetti Agresti (1875–1960) was a British activist, author, editor, and interpreter. A member of one of England's most prominent artistic and literary families, her unconventional political trajectory began with anarchism, continued with the League of Nations, and ended with Italian Fascism. Her involvement with the latter led to an important correspondence and friendship with Ezra Pound, who mentions her twice in his Cantos.
Arnold Rönnebeck was a German-born American modernist artist and museum administrator. He was a vital member of both the European and American avant-garde movements of the early twentieth century before settling in Denver, Colorado. Rönnebeck was a sculptor and painter, but is best known for his lithographs that featured a range of subjects including New York cityscapes, New Mexico and Colorado landscapes and Native American dances.
Peter Sheaf Hersey Newell was an American artist and writer. He created picture books and illustrated new editions of many children's books.
Jeremiah Dummer was the first American-born silversmith, whose works are today highly valued, two items of his having sold in 2004 and 2007 both for $204,000. He was also noted as a portrait painter and as an engraver, who created the first paper currency in Connecticut Colony. His son Jeremiah Jr. was involved with the foundation of Yale University.
Henricus Boelen II was a noted American silversmith active in New York City.
John Coburn was a noted silversmith active from about 1745 to 1790 in Boston, Massachusetts. Coburn was born in York, Maine, and apprenticed circa 1737 to John Edwards in Boston. He is best known for his tea-serving items, and also for silver objects for churches in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Maine. His work is collected in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Yale University Art Gallery.
Thomas Edwards was a prominent silversmith active in colonial Boston, Massachusetts. He was a son of silversmith John Edwards, and advertised in the Boston Weekly News-Letter, May 18, 1746, that he would carry on his father's business "at the shop of the deceased." His younger brother, Samuel Edwards, was also a silversmith, as was his son, Joseph Edwards Jr. Edwards served over time as Third Sergeant (1729), Ensign (1747), Lieutenant (1750), and Captain (1753) of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts. His work is collected in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Brooklyn Museum, and Winterthur Museum.
Rufus Greene was a noted American silversmith, and subsequently a wealthy Loyalist merchant, active in colonial Boston, Massachusetts.
K.S. (Kathy) Ernst is an American poet and artist best known for her work in visual poetry and three-dimensional object poems. While she has created over 500 physical works, she works extensively in digital art as well. Although born in St. Louis, she has spent most of her life in New Jersey, where her current studio is.
Joseph Edwards Jr. was an American silversmith, active in Boston.
Thomas Charles Fletcher was a prominent American silversmith and merchant, active in Boston and Philadelphia. His firm of Fletcher & Gardiner was nationally renowned.
Jacob Hurd was a leading American silversmith, active in Boston, and father to silversmiths Nathaniel Hurd (1729-1777) and Benjamin Hurd (1739-1781), as well as grandfather to Benjamin Hurd Jr. (1778-1818).
