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Every New Yorker just got an acceptance letter to Hogwarts.
Starting tomorrow, a major new exhibition will be on display at the New-York Historical Society that chronicles the real-life magical items and folklore that inspired J.K. Rowling as she wrote the Harry Potter series. “Harry Potter: A History of Magic” comes straight to NYC from the British Library, where it managed to achieve the major milestone of being their most successful exhibition ever.
The exhibition is a can’t-miss for all die-hard fans of Harry Potter, but even casual fans of the boy wizard will find plenty of interesting objects on display, spanning a wide range of time periods and civilizations. The rare manuscripts, books and magical objects were drawn from the collections of the British Library and New-York Historical Society as well as the archives of Scholastic and J.K. Rowling herself.
Study of the phoenix by Jim Kay On loan from Bloomsbury Publishing Plc Background image: detail from a Medieval Bestiary (England, 13th century) Phoenix illustration by Jim Kay © Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 2016. Original design by the British Library 2017.
Organized around the magic classes taught at Hogwarts, the show opens with a look at potions and alchemy. On display in that first room is the impressive Ripley Scroll depicting symbolic references to the philosopher’s stone. Next, museum-goers make their way through rooms dedicated to herbology, charms and astronomy which all contain real-life magical items including a mandrake root, a 13th century scroll containing the magical incantation “abracadabra” and a gorgeous celestial globe dating back to 1699 by famed cartographer Vincenzo Coronelli.
Vincenzo Coronelli Celestial globe Venice, 1699 General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University
The captivating items on display are far too numerous to describe here (don’t miss the intricate, gold 13th century astrolabe on load from the American Museum of Natural History across the street) but perhaps the most interesting parts of the exhibition are the hand-written notes and drawings that J.K. Rowling made while she was working on the books. Not only is the complicated plot of all seven books sketched out in some early sketches, but Rowling shows herself to be an excellent artist as well as writer. Her drawings of some of the characters from the book are a fascinating look into her creative process.
Even though this is probably the perfect museum exhibition to visit this October (Hello? Magic?) the show will be on display at the New-York Historical Society through January 27. Go see it!
Jacob Meydenbach [H]ortus Sanitatis Mainz, 1491 © British Library Board