Yale Bulletin And Calendar

Beinecke Curators Offer Peek Inside a Virtual 'Cabinet of Curiosities'

New Haven, Conn. — If you think of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library as a tomb for old "dead" books where only the most somber of scholars conduct research, curators Nancy Kuhl and Timothy Young hope a visit to their "Room 26 Cabinet of Curiosities" might make you reconsider.

A blog started by the curators nearly two years ago as an "ongoing exhibition" of the Beinecke's "hidden treasures" and new acquisitions, "Room 26 Cabinet of Curiosities" attracts some 200 guests daily - with visitors ranging from graphic artists to fans of Goth culture to poets to book lovers of all kinds. Rich in imagery but sparse on text, the blog showcases distinctive or unique books, ephemera and material culture in the library's collections, from the avant-garde to the zany, the curators note.

Kuhl and Young recently discussed "Room 26 Cabinet of Curiosities" with the Yale Bulletin & Calendar. Here is what we learned.

Life in Room 26: The curators share the light-filled Room 26 in the lower level of the Beinecke Library, where Kuhl is curator of poetry of the Yale Collection of American Literature, and Young is a curator of modern books and manuscripts and of the library's noted children's literature collection.

"I'm always exclaiming to Nancy: ‘Look at this great children's book I just got!' or sharing my excitement about some other new item for the collections, and she does the same with me," says Young. "We realized that a blog would allow us to share with the outside world our own passion for the interesting or fascinating things we see on a daily basis at the library."

They named their blog after their office room number and for the cabinets once used by individual collectors to store exotic objects from around the world.

"In the time before we had museums, there was a tradition of keeping a private collection in cabinets," says Young. "If you were a person of means, that is where you would put the things you collected on your travels."

Snapshots and samplings: Kuhl and Young share the job of selecting items featured on the blog. They mostly let the images of the featured items speak for themselves.

"We don't feel we have to tell the whole story," says Kuhl. "We see ourselves as just offering snapshots and inspiring curiosity.

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