(October 25, 2000) The Metropolitan Museum of Art today announced the opening of the Onassis Library for Hellenic and Roman Art in the Museum's Department of Greek and Roman. Scholars utilizing the Onassis Library will for the first time have access to the Met's rich and diverse collection of publications and its extensive historical archive of Greek and Roman art. In addition, because the library's resources are now available online, this extraordinary collection can be accessed by scholars, libraries, and databases worldwide.
The creation of the Onassis Library is the latest achievement in the Museum's ambitious master plan for the reinstallation and reorganization of the Greek and Roman art galleries and ancillary areas to make the collections both physically and intellectually more accessible. The library's primary mission is to support the study of the Greek and Roman Department's collection of more than 35,000 works of art while serving a wider scholarly constituency in the field of Greek and Roman art. Comprising more than 10,000 volumes, as well as journals and other research materials, this non-circulating research facility is open by appointment to Museum staff, graduate students, and qualified researchers and educators.
The Onassis Library for Hellenic and Roman Art has been generously supported by the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation.
In announcing the opening of the Onassis Library, Philippe de Montebello, Director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, noted: "Since its founding 130 years ago, The Metropolitan Museum of Art has maintained a profound commitment to the presentation, interpretation, and study of the great classical cultures of Greece and Rome – cultures whose artistic traditions have informed much of subsequent Western art to the present day. The Onassis Library for Hellenic and Roman Art, comprised of materials that have been assembled and refined with great care over more than a century, will provide a valuable resource that complements our holdings while aiding more widespread scholarship of Greek and Roman art. We are most grateful to the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation for supporting the creation of a facility worthy of this unique resource."
On behalf of the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation, President Stelio Papadimitriou stated: "This important new facility will be enormously beneficial to scholars of all generations – in our own time and in the future – and we are proud to have played a role in helping The Metropolitan Museum of Art create this splendid library."
Library Collections and Services
The Onassis Library for Hellenic and Roman Art in the Department of Greek and Roman Art at the Metropolitan Museum is a 2,110-square-foot facility designed for increased access to the department's more than 10,000 titles, which have as their nucleus the 1931 bequest of books on classical archaeology by the Museum's second director, Edward Robinson. Under the guidance of successive department heads Gisela M.A. Richter, Christine Alexander, Dietrich von Bothmer, and Carlos A. Picón, who is now Curator in Charge, the holdings of the library have expanded to be as rich in early literature as they are in contemporary studies and as comprehensive in philological works as in sales catalogues. Carlos A. Picón commented: "The creation of this library was one of my highest priorities from the inception of the Greek and Roman master plan a decade ago. We are enormously grateful to the Trustees of the Onassis Foundation for funding this project."
Rare and significant holdings include such early publications as the Annali dell'Istituto di Corrispondenza Archaeologica (1829-1885), the Bulletino dell'Istituto, and the Archäologische Zeitung (1843-1885); the complete Loeb Classical Library, a great number of Teubner texts, and the corpora of Greek and Latin inscriptions; and approximately 2,400 sales catalogues dating from the earliest European sales of the 1830s. The collection of books and research materials continues to expand and the Onassis Library was designed to incorporate this future growth. The library also includes the Department of Greek and Roman Art's extensive archival holdings, photographs, and ephemera.
All of the Onassis Library's books, journals, and CD-ROMs are catalogued in Watsonline, the Museum's libraries' online catalogue, available through the Museum's Web site (www.metmuseum.org). Computers in the Onassis Library provide access to Watsonline, bibliographies and indexes such as Dyabola, Gnomon, and The Database of Classical Bibliography, general reference sources, as well as Web sites relevant to ancient art and classical scholarship. The Museum System (TMS), a database of the department's collection of works of art, is also available for researchers.
Hours and Access
The Onassis Library is open by appointment, Tuesday through Friday. Before making an appointment, visitors are asked to consult the comprehensive holdings of the Thomas J. Watson Library, the Museum's main library. For an appointment, researchers should call Librarian Brian Kenney at (212) 650-2335 or fax (212) 570-3987; the library can also be reached by Email at onassislibrary@metmuseum.org.
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