wcw JANUARY 2024

travel feature
The Morgan Library & Museum
Turns 100
A noteworthy collections of books, drawings, photographs and more
You’re overwhelmed
with
cultural opportunities
when
you visit New
York City and the pattern
is usually MOMA, The
Met, The Whitney - all
wonderful places to visit.
Decidedly not an also
ran and a place that definitely
should be higher
up on that list is the Morgan
Library & Museum.
Maybe that’s because it’s
primarily known as a library,
but it also has art.
And then there’s that
library—a dazzling collection of rare
books including three copies of the
Gutenberg Bible, the first substantial
book printed from movable type in the
West all beautifully displayed on three
levels. It’s a room right out of a Harry
Potter movie.
Then there’s J.P. Morgan’s original office
where you can imagine one of the world’s wealthiest men
planning his next financial undertakings or purchases for
his collection.
The Morgan Library was founded in 1906 to house the
banker J. P. Morgan’s private library. His private library included
manuscripts, drawings, printed books, and more.
In 1924 the library became a public institution by his son,
John Pierpont Morgan, Jr., as per his father’s will.
The Morgan Library & Museum is located in a non-museum
part of New York at 225 Madison Avenue, between
36th Street to the south and 37th Street to the north. The
Morgan Library & Museum is composed of several structures
including the galleries and the library wing. The private
residence is not open to the public.
Morgan’s library, as it was known in his lifetime, was built
between 1902 and 1906 adjacent to his New York residence
at Madison Avenue and 36th Street. Designed by
Charles McKim of the architectural firm McKim, Mead &
White, the library was intended as something more than
a repository of rare materials. Majestic in appearance yet
intimate in scale, the structure was to reflect the nature
and stature of its holdings. The result was an Italian Renaissance-style
palazzo with three magnificent rooms
epitomizing America’s Age of Elegance.
The largest expansion in the Morgan’s history, adding
75,000 square feet to the campus, was completed in
2006. Designed by architect Renzo Piano, the project increased
exhibition space by more than fifty percent and
added visitor amenities, including a new performance
hall, a welcoming entrance on Madison Avenue, a new
café and a new restaurant, a shop, a new reading room,
and collections storage. Piano’s design integrates the
Morgan’s three historical buildings with three scaled
steel-and-glass pavilions. A central court connects the
buildings and serves as a gathering place for visitors in
the spirit of an Italian piazza.
They’ve got some exciting exhibits for their centennial
including a landmark exhibition exploring the life and
legacy of Belle da Costa Greene, famed librarian and inaugural
director of the Morgan.
J.P. Morgan himself hired Greene to grow and look after
his collection of manuscripts. Throughout her career,
Greene—who came from a prominent Black family in
D.C.—claimed to be of Portuguese descent to pass as
White in a racist and segregated America. This landmark
exhibition explores social issues of the time while celebrating
the life and legacy of Da Costa Greene who, despite
being one of America’s most prominent librarians,
remains an undersung legend.
Beatrix Potter
Another highlight of the Centennial programming is an
exhibition dedicated to the legendary British children’s
books illustrator and author Beatrix Potter, traveling
from the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. Beatrix
Potter: Drawn to Nature, will examine the writer’s deep
connection with the British countryside, which inspired
her fantastic tales populated by animals combining their
natural characteristics with human behaviors.
On view now:
❑ Seen Together: Acquisitions in Photography on display
January 26 through May 26, 2024.
Seen Together showcases over 40 previously unexhibited
works acquired by the Morgan’s Department of Photography
since its founding in 2012.
One wall of the exhibition features 18 photographs of
prominent figures from many creative disciplines, notably
visual art (Yayoi Kusama, Marcel Duchamp, Saul
Steinberg), literature (Marianne Moore, Jack Kerouac),
performance (Yoko Ono, Harlem Renaissance dancer
Edna Guy), and music (Louis Hardin, aka Moondog). Visually
inventive photography of artists—transcending “portraiture”
in the familiar sense—forms.
Centennial Year Exhibition Program:
❑ Beatrix Potter: Drawn to Nature (February 23 through
June 9, 2024)
Beatrix Potter: Drawn to Nature brings together artwork,
books, manuscripts, and artifacts from several institutions
in the United Kingdom, including the Victoria and
Albert Museum, the National Trust, and the Armitt Museum
and Library. Paired with the Morgan’s collection of
her picture letters, these objects trace how Potter’s innovative
blend of scientific observation and imaginative
storytelling shaped some of the world’s most popular
children’s books.
❑ Walton Ford: Birds and Beasts of the Studio (April 12
Belle da Costa Greene
through October 6, 2024)
American artist Walton Ford (b. 1960) established
his reputation in the 1990s with
his monumental watercolor paintings of
wild animals inspired by true or legendary
stories. Fascinated by the perception of wilderness
in the collective imagination and
by the consequences of human behavior—
from colonialism to climate change—for
the future of wildlife species, Ford develops
complex narratives that have renewed the
genre of animal painting.
The exhibition features a selection of animal
drawings by earlier artists—from Peter Paul
Rubens and Maria Sibylla Merian to Eugène
Delacroix, Antoine-Louis Barye, and John
James Audubon—selected by Ford from
the Morgan’s collection.
❑ Belle da Costa Greene: A Librarian’s
Legacy (October 25, 2024 through May 4, 2025)
Belle da Costa Greene (1879–1950) is one of the most
prominent librarians in American history and is widely
recognized as an authority on illuminated manuscripts
and deeply respected as a cultural heritage executive.
Born Belle Marion Greener, she was the daughter of Richard
T. Greener (1844-1922), who was the first Black graduate
of Harvard College.
The exhibition traces Greene’s storied life, from her roots
in a predominantly Black community in Washington,
D.C., to her distinguished career at the helm of the Morgan,
one of the world’s great research libraries. Through
the display of extraordinary objects―from medieval
manuscripts and rare printed books to archival records
and portraits―the exhibition demonstrates the confidence
and savvy Greene brought to her roles as librarian,
scholar, curator, and cultural executive, and honors her
enduring legacy.
Additional exhibitions include:
❑ Liberty to the Imagination: Drawings from the Eveillard
Gift (June 7 through October 6, 2024)
❑ Crafting the Ballets Russes: The Robert Owen Lehman
Collection (June 28 through September 22, 2024)
❑ Far and Away: Drawings from the Clement C. Moore
Collection (June 28 through September 22, 2024)
❑ Franz Kafka (November 22, 2024 through April 13, 2025).
Plan Your Trip:
The Morgan Library & Museum
225 Madison Avenue, New York, NY
The Morgan Library & Museum is open Tuesday,
Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday from 10:30
am to 5 pm, and Friday from 10:30 am to 7 pm.
Entry to the Museum is by timed ticket. For tickets
and information, visit www.themorgan.org
STORY and IMAGES: Louise Bruderle
JANUARY 2024 WEST COAST WOMAN 25