“Lincoln Kirstein: Alchemist,” a new exhibit at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, saturates the visitor in a microcosm of 20th-century ballet, as it honors Kirstein’s contributions to dance performance and dance scholarship. Included are posters, props, set and costume designs, miniature set maquettes, performance photos, first editions of the many books about dance written by Kirstein, Isamu Noguchi’s masks for Balanchine’s “Orpheus,” and the headdress that Maria Tallchief wore when dancing the “Firebird.”

Born into a wealthy Boston mercantile family, Kirstein brought Balanchine to America in 1933. The choreographer was already a proven European quantity by virtue of his choreography for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes — which Kirstein had seen as a visitor to Europe during the late 1920s — and the companies that sprouted following Diaghilev’s death in 1929. Together, Kirstein and Balanchine founded the School of American Ballet in 1934, and in 1948, the New York City Ballet. Bracketed by those two major incorporations are the ballet companies Kirstein founded in the interim: the American Ballet, Ballet Caravan, American Ballet Caravan, the American Ballet Caravan (renamed for a tour to South America in 1941), and Ballet Society. Each can be seen as a forerunner of NYCB, but each also sported a distinct profile. Some featured Balanchine’s work, some the work of other choreographers such as Lew Christensen’s “Filling Station,” and Eugene Loring’s “Billy the Kid.”

Closely aligned as they were, Balanchine and Kirstein’s aesthetics diverged at any number of junctures. Kirstein was more keenly interested in a new narrative ballet repertory drawn from indigenous American themes and literature. Yet it was Balanchine who choreographed 1935’s “Alma Mater,” whose flappers and sheiks were costumed by iconic Jazz Age illustrator John Held. Held’s costume designs provide one of the most beguiling artifacts on view.

Augmented by loans from other major archives, the objects on display are drawn largely from the Performing Arts library’s own collections. And in honoring Kirstein, the library is saluting one of its most important donors: Kirstein’s was a signal catalyst in the development of the library’s dance collection. He also was crucial to the establishment of the library’s conservation laboratory. A number of the laboratory’s accomplishments are on view, including two restored paintings by Kirstein himself, as well as a 1690 book that he donated to the library.

Kirstein remained loyal to Diaghilev’s concept of ballet as a joint and collaborative art form, in which music, design, and choreography all were equal partners; Balanchine increasingly focused on music and choreography. When we get to the New York City Ballet, the ballets represented are largely projects that Kirstein directly inspired or commissioned. In them, the design element is particularly vital. Indeed, Kirstein’s interest in the fine arts was nearly as passionate as his focus on ballet.

With the School of American Ballet’s Muriel Stuart, Kirstein was co-author of “The Classic Ballet: Basic Technique and Terminology.” Their book was illustrated with drawings inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man, and some of those illustrations are reproduced in the exhibit. Kirstein really did see ballet and its performers as the logical descendents of Leonardo’s imagined human perfection, summits of human accomplishment, and gateways to the sublime.

Until January 30 (111 Amsterdam Ave. at 65th Street, 212-870-1630).