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"Utopia: The Search for the Ideal Society in the Western World." New York Public Library, Humanities and Social Sciences Library, Fifth Ave. and 42d St., New York, NY 100 18.
Temporary exhibition, Oct. 14, 2000-Jan. 27, 2001. 550 objects. Roland Schaer, curator; Holland Goss, research curator; Gregory Claeys, Paul LeClerc, and Lyman Tower Sargent, advisory team.
Utopia: The Search for the Ideal Society in the Western World. Ed. by Roland Schaer, Gregory Claeys, and Lyman Tower Sargent. (New York: New York Public Library and Oxford University Press, 2000. 386 pp. Cloth, $49.95, ISBN 0-19-514110-5; paper, $27.50, ISBN 0-19-514111-3.)
Internet: <http: //www nypl.org/utopia>.
As the third millennium began, it was certainly appropriate to reflect on the evolution of utopian visions that, in one form or another, have been a hallmark of Western culture. The product of an unprecedented partnership between the New York Public Library and the Bibliotheque Nationale de France in Paris-which earlier mounted a similar but separate exhibition-"Utopia" ranged from ancient cultures to the Internet. Its roughly 550 objects included often priceless books, manuscripts, documents, drawings, prints, maps, photographs, posters, and album covers. Among those objects were the first editions of Thomas More's Utopia (15 16) and of other classic utopian works; Thomas Jefferson's handwritten copy of the Declaration of Independence; "The Green Globe," the first depiction of the Americas as separate continents; the "Columbus Letter," the published version of Christopher Columbus's report from the New World; Shaker drawings; items from the 1939-1940 and 19641965 New...