The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library opens, devoted entirely to Yale’s exceptional collections of rare books and manuscripts. Designed by Gordon Bunshaft, the building is constructed of translucent marble panes framed in granite and enclosing a six-story freestanding book tower. Yale’s copies of the Gutenberg Bible and John James Audubon’s Birds of America elephant folios are on permanent display. Manuscripts of Gertrude Stein, Edith Wharton, Langston Hughes, James Joyce, James Boswell, Witold Gombrowicz, and many other authors are among its holdings, alongside rich collections of medieval manuscripts, Western Americana, autograph music, and much more.
