The Library's current exhibition, Herman Melville's New York, 1850, explores the relationship between the member writer, the city of New York, and the Library itself. In 1850, Melville lived about a mile north of the Library, and he often visited his brother at his Wall Street office or promenaded on the Battery just a half-mile downtown. This pattern was typical of many of the men at the Library who read his books, for whom the Library would have been a convenient stop on their commute.