Manager for Library Administration Dana Hart explores Watson Library's complete set of The American Woods, a gorgeous sample book of various types of wood.

The most musical tree in the world.

The invention of glassblowing led to an enormous increase in the range of shapes and designs that glassworkers could produce, and the mold-blowing process soon developed as an offshoot of free-blowing.

Barry Mitterhoff and Woody Mann performed Vicksburg Stomp with their mandolin and guitar.

In the fifteenth century, artists took increasing inspiration from the culture of antiquity and from the natural world, and began to depict objects such as fruits, sweets, and wine vessels, as well as flora and fauna, in both devotional and secular images.

Cast gold ornaments exhibiting imagery of political and martial supremacy dangled from sword hilts and scabbards enhanced the prestige of those who wore them.

The British artist Cornelia Parker is known for her large, site-specific installations. Often composed of ordinary objects, her works makes the familiar extraordinary, whimsical, and even poignant. Her new project, Transitional Object (PsychoBarn), conceived and created for The Metropolitan Museum of Art, merges two iconic examples of American architecture, the red barn and the infamous mansion on a hill from Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece Psycho (itself inspired by the paintings of Edward Hopper). The work meditates on the tension between these iconic structures and subtly suggests how architecture generates conflicting emotional states. This beautifully illustrated book is the fourth in a series that documents and contextualizes The Met's annual rooftop commissions. The introductory essay by Beatrice Galilee follows the process of crafting this work, tracing the myriad psychological associations that are embedded in architectural spaces, The interview between the artist and Sheena Wagstaff provides an insightful discussion of Parker's wide-ranging career and explores the conceptual framework that informs her remarkable commission.

Senior Library Associate for Systems Daisy Paul discusses Watson Library's extensive collection of books on knitting.

Celebrated Argentinian artist Adrián Villar Rojas is known for his site-specific sculptural installations. For The Theater of Disappearance, the artist mines The Met’s collection, drawing on the five thousand years of world history within its galleries, to create an elaborate ahistorical work. Set atop the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden, Villar Rojas’s installation transforms the space into a performative diorama, where banquet tables occupy an oversize black-and-white checkerboard floor punctuated by sculptures that fuse together human figures and artifacts found within the museum. The resulting juxtapositions put forth a radical reinterpretation of museum practices. This illustrated book is the fifth edition in a series that documents and contextualizes The Met’s annual rooftop commissions. The introductory essay by Beatrice Galilee explores the conceptual framework that informs Villar Rojas’s remarkable commission as well as his interventions around the world. While exploring the Museum, Villar Rojas took thousands of photographs of objects and moments of interest. A selection of these images is featured here alongside the artist’s commentary, offering a unique visual diary of Villar Rojas’s thought process as he developed this arresting installation.