have been sealed. First floor Above the ground floor is the first floor. The staircase entrance from Fifth Avenue opens up into the first-floor lobby, known as Astor Hall. This floor contains the Picture Collection (room 100), Wallace Periodical Room (room 108), and Jewish Division (room 111, former Periodicals Room) on the south side. On the north side are the Milstein Division (room 121, former Patents Room), Milstein Microforms (room 119), and Map Division (room 117). The Wachenheim Gallery, the library shop, the Bartos Education Center, and the Gottesman Hall (room 111, former Exhibition Room) are located in rooms that open into Astor Hall. The first floor also formerly contained various supervisors' offices, a library for the blind, and a technology room. The north–south corridor extends the entire width of the first floor, with large windows overlooking the street at either end; the ceiling was painted to resemble carved wood. Astor Hall Astor Hall is the first-floor lobby, reached from the portico at the top of the Fifth Avenue stairs. The hall measures , corresponding to three north–south bays and two west–east bays. The walls and ceiling are clad in Vermont marble. The ceiling is a shallow barrel vault, decorated with rectangular molded frames that consist of various motifs. Although the ceiling was intended to be a self-supporting structure, it is reinforced by a layer of concrete below the second floor. The pillars on the west and east walls are topped by egg-and-dart moldings, and there are marble candelabras next to these walls. There are arched openings at the top of the western wall, which support the ceiling, underneath which are archways leading to the first-floor rooms. The north and south walls contain piers. The names of major donors are inscribed on the pillars. There are two grand marble staircases on the north and south walls. The staircases ascend several steps away from the hall before turning 90 degrees westward at a landing and ascending parallel to each other toward the second floor, behind the piers on the north and south walls. There are bronze busts of Carrère and Hastings, created in 1940 and 1935 respectively, at the landings of the stairways. The Carrère bust is near the south (left) stair, while the Hastings bust is near the north (right) stair. At the second floor, a mezzanine level overlooks the west side of the lobby, behind the arches. Another pair