New York Public Library, Public library network headquarters in Fifth Avenue, Manhattan, US

The New York Public Library is the headquarters for a large network of public libraries across Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island. The main building on Fifth Avenue features marble staircases, arched hallways, and two stone lions at the entrance.

The Astor Library (opened 1854) and the Lenox Library (1877) were both struggling financially when trustees merged them on May 23, 1895, with Samuel J. Tilden's bequest, as The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. John Shaw Billings became first director that December. The Fifth Avenue main building, on the Croton reservoir site between 40th and 42nd Streets, is inscribed MDCCCXCV.

The main branch's name honours the 1895 merger of the Astor and Lenox collections with the Tilden bequest, formally titled The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. The two entrance lions, named Patience and Fortitude, were given those names by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia in the 1930s.

The main building sits on Fifth Avenue between 40th and 42nd Streets, on the site of the old Croton reservoir. Enter from Fifth Avenue past the two lion statues, Patience and Fortitude, which flank the steps. The building is a National Historic Landmark, designated in 1965.

The Main Branch holds the first Gutenberg Bible to reach the New World, donated with James Lenox's Americana and rare books. Its map division lent thousands of strategic maps to wartime agencies; chief Walter Ristow led the geography section of the War Department's New York Military Intelligence office from 1942 to 1945.