The Philly Free Library temporarily closed its Rare Book Department Monday. Blame a leaky roof.

The Rare Book Department of the Free Library of Philadelphia partially reopened Tuesday after a leaky gallery roof threatened some of its collections and forced them to shut their doors.

Library officials said none of their 40,000 rare books, antiques, artifacts, artworks, letters, photographs, and other items — one of the largest public library special collections in the country — suffered damage when weekend storm water entered a portion of the Parkway Central branch roof. The roof was already undergoing repairs for faulty drains.

While most of the building was open for regular hours Tuesday, a gallery housing the lauded Chronicling Resistance project — a collaborative archival exhibition that preserves more than 300 years of history from Philadelphia’s marginalized communities — will remain closed until that portion the building can be fully repaired, officials said.

“Thankfully no materials were damaged in the Rare Book Department at the Parkway Central Library,” said Kaitlyn Foti-Kalosy, a Free Library spokesperson. “The team from the department and Collection Care responded quickly once the leak was discovered and removed all items from the areas affected and placed them in storage.”

The collection of rare photos, scrapbooks, and documents of Philadelphia’s underrepresented groups shown in the Chronicling Resistance exhibit — funded by the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage and a $600,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in 2020 — were also protected, Foti-Kalosy said.

The Rare Book Department first posted on the leak Monday on their Facebook page:

“Well, we have had quite a morning,” an employee noted. “The combination of Hurricane Ian and roof work being done on our not quite 100 year old building did not bode well for us.”

The leak is located on the east side of the Parkway Central roof above the Dietrich Gallery, Foti-Kalosy said, which houses some of the Chronicling Resistance exhibit, and where there has been work in the past weeks to address water damage concerns stemming from misaligned drains, Foti-Kalosy aid.

An overnight security guard first discovered the water damage Sunday, she said, alerting the department’s chief of Special Collections. Many of the exhibit items were already encased in protective glass, she added.

“All the objects are being stored securely and safely until the space is remediated and water tight,” Foti-Kalosy said

There have been other leaks in the building in recent years — all immediately addressed with routine maintenance and repair, Foti-Kalosy said — including one that damaged some rare Bibles, which were then treated by the department’s Collection Care team.

After the series of leaks, the Free Library commissioned a full roof assessment earlier this year, Foti-Kalosy said. Last week, just days before the leak, they began a $500,000 capital project to reroof the Rare Book Department.

“The facilities team believes they have identified the source of the leak and stopped it,” she said.

The Dietrich Gallery is a temporary exhibition gallery that allows the Free Library to host larger-scale exhibitions, like Chronicling Resistance. Besides the rare materials, the exhibit showcases original works by curatorial fellows, photos from the Library’s Print and Pictures and Rare Book Collections, and materials on loan from other Philadelphia collections. All of the private donors and area institutions were immediately notified of the leak, Foti-Kalosy said.

“These objects were immediately assessed, determined to be free of any damage,” Foti-Kalosy said.

Roofers, she said, will be on site Thursday to repair the gallery roof.