Feb 10, 2017

Photos and text by Barbara Haddock Taylor

: Paul Espinosa, curator, holds a 1617 copy of Don Quixote, one of the many treasures at the Peabody Library. (Barbara Haddock Taylor/Baltimore Sun)

: Paul Espinosa, curator of the Peabody Library, looks at rare books in the library’s Rare Books Room. (Barbara Haddock Taylor/Baltimore Sun)

: Visitors walk through an exhibit called “The Enigmatic Edgar A. Poe In Baltimore and Beyond.” The exhibit contains items from the private collection of Susan Jaffe Tane that are on display at the George Peabody Library until February 5. (Barbara Haddock Taylor/Baltimore Sun)

: A staircase at the George Peabody Library leads to a lower stack. (Barbara Haddock Taylor/Baltimore Sun)

: A skeleton decoration from a Halloween event is waiting to be put away at the George Peabody Library. (Barbara Haddock Taylor/Baltimore Sun)

: Larry Fask of Reisterstown reads a 1937 history of Worcester, MA (his hometown) at the Peabody Library. (Barbara Haddock Taylor/Baltimore Sun)

: This is part of an 1827 set of “The World In Miniature” books in the Rare Books Room at the Peabody Library. (Barbara Haddock Taylor/Baltimore Sun)

: Cast iron railings are a distinctive feature of the atrium at the George Peabody Library. (Barbara Haddock Taylor/Baltimore Sun)

: Paul Espinosa, left, curator, walks across the floor at the George Peabody Library. (Barbara Haddock Taylor/Baltimore Sun)

: This is a railing on an upper floor at the George Peabody Library. (Barbara Haddock Taylor/Baltimore Sun)

: Elizabeth Winkelhoff, 20, is a Johns Hopkins University student who is taking a class on the history of the George Peabody Library. She and other students were looking at 19th century Scottish “chat books” that are part of the library’s collection. (Barbara Haddock Taylor/Baltimore Sun)

: Paul Espinosa, curator, holds an 1856 second edition of “Leaves of Grass” by Walt Whitman, one of the many treasures at the Peabody Library. (Barbara Haddock Taylor/Baltimore Sun)

: Gold-scalloped columns are interspersed between cast-iron railings in the Peabody Library. (Barbara Haddock Taylor/Baltimore Sun)

: A window in the gallery at the George Peabody Library features a temporary image from an exhibit on Edgar Allan Poe. (Barbara Haddock Taylor/Baltimore Sun)

: This is part of the skylight, which is undergoing renovation at the Peabody Library. (Barbara Haddock Taylor/Baltimore Sun)

: A staircase at the George Peabody Library leads to a lower stack. (Barbara Haddock Taylor/Baltimore Sun)

: The stack room in the George Peabody Library is 61-feet high and features five tiers of cast-iron balconies. (Barbara Haddock Taylor/Baltimore Sun)

One of Baltimore’s many architectural treasures is the George Peabody Library at the Peabody Institute of Music in Mount Vernon. Built in 1878, it is now part of the Sheridan Libraries Special Collections of Johns Hopkins University.

The library’s dramatic “stack room” is 5 tiers of ornamental cast iron balconies brimming with books. The monumental space is capped with a huge skylight 61 feet above the floor.

Three hundred thousand volumes on nearly every subject are contained in the library’s universal collection. The collection is non-circulating which means that, while the collection is open to the general public, books can only be read inside the library.

The Rare Books Room contains works such as an 1856 edition of Walt Whitman’s “Leaves Of Grass” and a 1617 edition of Don Quixote. One of the oldest books is a beautifully illustrated 1493 history of the world called “The Nuremberg Chronicle.”

Curator Paul Espinosa, relates that the best part of working at the library is sharing the collection with students and the larger public in more depth. “Putting a first edition of Moby-Dick (1851) in front of students studying the novel, or a first of Darwin’s Origin of the Species (1859) in front of a biology major makes all the difference. In our fast paced and digitally-evolving world those sorts of experiences actually slow things down in a good way and leave room and time for thought — the whole purpose of a library such as this after all.”

The George Peabody Library, a literary and architectural treasure

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