Ground Floor Gallery
Risings: The Irish Literary Revival and the Making of a Nation
April 29 – July 25, 2026
Risings explores the formation of Irish identity as told by the Irish Literary Revival of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and the parallel political quest for nationhood. Drawn from the collections of The New York Public Library, Alexander Neubauer, Alan Klein, and Colm Tóibín, and presented in collaboration with The New York Public Library, the exhibition examines the collaborative partnership of W.B. Yeats, one of the foremost poets of the 20th century, and Lady Augusta Gregory, a dramatist who co-founded with Yeats the Irish Literary Theatre and the Abbey Theatre. Together with a broad circle of writers, including J.M. Synge, James Joyce, and Sean O’Casey, they sparked a modern literary revival amidst the fervor of Irish independence and statehood, writing, in Gregory’s words, “the book of the people.” The exhibition features approximately 130 objects—with more than 50 items from the Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection at The New York Public Library—including typescripts, inscribed and association copies, letters, theatre pamphlets, political propaganda, and photographs, which situate this prolific period of literary production in the broader context of political unrest.
Image: Standish O'Grady, The Coming of Cuchulain. 1917. Courtesy of Alexander Neubauer.
Second Floor Gallery
Running Through Heaven: Visions of Jack Kerouac
March 5 – May 16, 2026
Running Through Heaven: Visions of Jack Kerouac examines the origins of one of the most influential authors of the 20th century, whose quintessential American novel On The Road features an unfiltered, spontaneous style of stream of consciousness writing that had a tremendous impact on the world’s literature. The exhibition explores Kerouac’s personal life from childhood to his death through approximately 60 objects from the collection of Jacob Loewentheil, including unpublished letters and manuscripts, books, important inscribed first editions, original drawings, magazines, and realia. Highlights include Kerouac’s drawing to accompany his narrative poem Old Angel Midnight (c. 1960), which captures the voices he heard through his Lower East Side tenement window; an early unpublished story, written by Kerouac as a child; as well as letters between Kerouac and one of his best friends from childhood. An accompanying catalogue, published by the Grolier Club, will be available in spring 2026.
Image: Jack Kerouac, Old Angel Midnight, c. 1960, ink and pastel. Courtesy of The Jacob Loewentheil Jack Kerouac Archive.