A Century of The New Yorker to Open at The New York Public Library

Saul Steinberg (1914–1999), cover artist, The New Yorker, March 29, 1976. © The Saul Steinberg Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Cover reprinted with permission of The New Yorker magazine. All rights reserved, courtesy The New York Public Library

New exhibition showcases the historic transformations of preeminent magazine

On February 22, 2025, A Century of The New Yorker will open at The New York Public Library, showcasing the history of The New Yorker from its launch in 1925 to present day and bringing to life the people, stories, and ideas that have defined the iconic magazine.

Founding documents, rare manuscripts, photographs, and timeless cover and cartoon art drawn from the Library’s rich holdings, along with artifacts from other renowned institutions, will feature in the dynamic exhibition, which will take visitors behind the scenes of the making of one of the United States’s most important magazines.

The exhibition will explore the literary cosmopolitanism The New Yorker forged throughout its one-hundred-year history, from the roaring twenties through the digital age, and highlight the role of both well-known creators such as E.B. White and Vladimir Nabokov as well as underrepresented and unsung contributors—from artists and copyeditors to typists and fact checkers.

A Century of The New Yorker will be a centerpiece of The New Yorker’s centenary, a year-long celebration that will begin February 2025 and will include “Tales From The New Yorker,” a film series at Film Forum, and the digitization of the magazine’s hundred-year archive, among other programming and events. 

The New York Public Library is the home of the New Yorker records, which it acquired in 1991. The archive includes over 2,500 boxes, or 1,058 linear feet, and is one of the Library’s largest and most-used archival collections. The exhibition will draw on the Library’s rich archives related to the magazine and its writers and editors. Additionally, The New Yorker provided rare documents and artifacts from its own holdings to supplement the Library’s.

“In ways we see and don’t see, The New Yorker has shaped so many aspects of American culture, politics, and intellectual life over the past century,” said Julie Golia, Associate Director, Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books and Charles J. Liebman Curator of Manuscripts, the co-curator of the exhibition. “A Century of The New Yorker invites the Library’s visitors into the pages of the magazine, revealing the fascinating history of the country’s most important magazine through our rich collections.”

“Countless have been influenced by The New Yorker and delighted in its pages of groundbreaking journalism and irreverent cartoon art. As the home of the New Yorker records, The New York Public Library is the steward and preserver of the magazine’s one-hundred-year history,” said Anthony W. Marx, President of The New York Public Library. “I’m thrilled that visitors to the Library will be able to access the records through A Century of The New Yorker and see up-close how the renowned magazine has shaped intellectual life and cultural history in the United States.”

Highlights from the exhibition include:

• The prospectus for The New Yorker (1924);
• Original artwork for the first issue of The New Yorker by Rea Irvin (1925);
• W.H. Auden’s handwritten draft of “Refugee Blues” (1939);
• John Updike’s handwritten assignments for Talk of the Town (1940s);
• Original signed art by Helen Hokinson (1941);
• The New Yorker type identification and style guide (1981);
• Correspondence between William Shawn and John Hersey related to “Hiroshima” (1946);
• The typescript draft of “In Cold Blood” by Truman Capote, with revisions and deletions by William Shawn (1965);
• Hannah Arendt’s original typescript manuscript of “Eichmann in Jerusalem” (1963);
• Cynthia Ozick, “The Fallibility Rag,” poem dedicated to New Yorker grammarian Eleanor Gould (1987);
• A mock-up of the first New Yorker website and other 21st-century artifacts; and
• Original film featuring current and recent writers, editors, and staff exploring the history, legacy, and future of The New Yorker.

Further highlights are listed below.

“A Century of The New Yorker showcases the many brilliant, funny, obsessive, and imperfect people whose hard work made—and continues to make—The New Yorker what it is today: a beacon of excellence and creativity,” said Julie Carlsen, Assistant Curator, Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, the co-curator of the exhibition.

“I can’t imagine a better home for The New Yorker’s archives than The New York Public Library—an essential resource for writers and readers everywhere,” David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker, said. “In taking stock of a century of stories, personalities, and yes, cartoons, this exhibition offers a captivating look at the history of the magazine.”

Additional highlights include:

• Dorothy Parker’s manuscript list of “Unattractive Authors Whose Work I Admire”;
• A memo from Katharine White to Harold Ross about discontent among administrative staff (1944);
• Vladimir Nabokov’s copy of 55 Short Stories from The New Yorker (1949), with his handwritten grades for each story;
• Twin typewriters used by Lillian Ross and William Shawn;
• Reader responses to James Baldwin’s “Letter from a Region in my Mind” (1962);
• Saul Steinberg’s caricature of Tina Brown (1990s);
• Kara Walker’s preparatory drawings for “Quiet As It’s Kept,” the 2019 cover honoring Toni Morrison; and
• Kadir Nelson’s “Say Their Names,” an interactive cover revealing the ongoing violence inflicted on Black Americans (2020).

Select objects will be accompanied by an audio experience featuring New Yorker writers and editors, including Kevin Young, Françoise Mouly, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Mary Norris, and Deborah Treisman, among others.

In addition to the New Yorker records, The Library is home to over two dozen other archives of writers, editors, artists, and other contributors to the magazine—including Jhumpa Lahiri, Annie Proulx, Vladimir Nabokov, Charles Addams, and Joseph Mitchell.

A Century of The New Yorker draws on collections from all three of the Library’s research centers: the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the Library for the Performing Arts, and the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. It will be open to the public for an entire year.

The Library provides free access to The New Yorker, both current issues and its full archive, with an NYPL library card.

About The New York Public Library

For over 125 years, The New York Public Library has been a free provider of education and information for the people of New York and beyond. With over 90 locations—including research and branch libraries—throughout the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island, the Library offers free materials, computer access, classes, exhibitions, programming and more to everyone from toddlers to scholars. The New York Public Library receives approximately 16 million visits through its doors annually and millions more around the globe who use its resources at www.nypl.org. To offer this wide array of free programming, The New York Public Library relies on both public and private funding. Learn more about how to support the Library at nypl.org/support.