Visiting New York Public Library's treasures
This week I visited New York Public Library’s Polonsky exhibition — a selection from over 56 million items! Many were literary gems, witness to some of the most grand historical events.
The first edition of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations, a dead cat’s paw related to Charles Dickens, and Ernest Hemingway’s high school chemistry assignment from 1915 were some items on display. While the exhibit is a mixbag with a asian history, some rare religious texts and a bunch of artefacts related to 18th and 19th century western authors, it was an enriching experience nonetheless.
The same week, I started my history class at Columbia, focused on the history of journalism in the Anglo-American world. We started our readings with Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, Madame de Beaumer’s Journal des Dames and British politician-journalist Joseph Addison’s Spectator (a 1711 daily newspaper!).
It’s been fun! My partner’s visiting me from India and I finally have a reason to really explore New York!
On the same note, here’s something interesting I read this week:
Dear People of 2021: What Can We Learn From Hindsight?
It’s a new NYT series where they’ll track how predictions have fared.
And, in other news:
19-year-old lands in Belgium, becoming youngest woman to fly solo around the world!!
I’ll be back next week with updates on my coding projects, until then, stay safe and take care!🌻