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Morning view:
The plan for the day was the Morgan Library:
The Morgan Library is amazing. I had a pre-paid will call ticket so my admission sticker didn’t have a time printed on it. Admission is timed and you’re supposed to only be there an hour. People who bought admission there had time stamps on their stickers and I heard some stressing about ‘only fifteen minutes left, we only have fifteen minutes’ Meanwhile, I spent a leisurely two hours and did a full circuit of everything twice, even sat for a bit to look over my photos and post to Bluesky.
It wasn’t until I was there and I’d seen the name ‘J Pierre Morgan’ a few times that my brain turned on and I realized this was the collection of JP Morgan, as in JP Morgan Chase. Chase Bank. I didn't know anything about this place, I just looked up stuff to do in NYC, saw one image of the Morgan Library and went 'yes, good' and put it on the list. I figured I'd learn about it there. In addition to his personal library, you can also see his office, his librarian's office, the modern galleries that were added and the large cafe in the center of the space.
His office:
Vault in his office with thick steel walls for his most valuable books:
Teeny books:
A volume of Dante his librarian Belle Greene spent a lot of time acquiring:
And what I spent a lot of time in there doing, trying to get selfies in the space:
As I've said entirely too often, I don't have pictures of me in places or doing things, so I am trying... through brute force. I don't even really know how to smile for a photo but if I take enough... something will work?
Oh, and a ring that was just found in JP's kid's desk:
That was Lord Byron's ring, and it was just hanging out in his drawer? It's a gimmel ring, which is multiple rings that fit together as a sign of love and conceal a heart under clasped hands.
There is almost nothing about JP in there, but lots about Belle da Costa Greene, his librarian. She was a light skinned black woman who passed as white for more of her career. The largest exhibit - which runs though May 4 - was on her, her life, showing photos of her and how they were shot to help her pass. So much on colorism. Two whole galleries were filled with pictures and drawings of her, her life, colorism in that era in general. Not what I was expecting to explore for my afternoon, my plan was 'try to get selfie in pretty room', but I was impressed.
Her office:
Her office had a large display of rolling seals - Each cluster is a seal, an actual imprint and then a photo enlarged to show detail:
Belle in her apartment with her personal library:
I was amused by the analog photoshopping, details where painted over to make it pop for print:
While JP collected European and medieval texts, she collected Asian and Middle Eastern texts and fine examples of Persian Script - from her collection:
Very little is know about her point of view on things. Someone was working on a biography of her, but the manuscript was lost? She was authorized to spent up to 100k of his funds on a single book, 100k in 1910 money, so about 3.3 mill. There is a pastel illustration of her at a 1911 auction bidding 50k for a single volume.
In addition to all that, there was yet another gallery of illuminated manuscripts, a stone passageway lead up to an gallery with a display on Kafka:
The hallways between the spaces also has painted ceilings, artifacts, rare book editions, etc.
And then another gallery with an exhibit about how often Medieval books were chopped up, pages treated like art prints, insets removed, etc. This is a painting and the book it was taken from:
A lot of medieval art we have is from books that were chopped up to treat the illuminations as like paintings, or sometimes bindings were removed to make the books cheaper to move over the ages.
And finally a depiction of how why so many valuable books, paintings, statues and other things from all over Europe got concentrated into one NYC townhouse:
I really lucked out with which temporary exhibits I got to see. The one of Belle da Costa Greene was amazing and I wish it was permanent. The two additional medieval book exhibits were great. The Kafka one I sort of breezed through.
The plan for the day was the Morgan Library:
The Morgan Library is amazing. I had a pre-paid will call ticket so my admission sticker didn’t have a time printed on it. Admission is timed and you’re supposed to only be there an hour. People who bought admission there had time stamps on their stickers and I heard some stressing about ‘only fifteen minutes left, we only have fifteen minutes’ Meanwhile, I spent a leisurely two hours and did a full circuit of everything twice, even sat for a bit to look over my photos and post to Bluesky.
It wasn’t until I was there and I’d seen the name ‘J Pierre Morgan’ a few times that my brain turned on and I realized this was the collection of JP Morgan, as in JP Morgan Chase. Chase Bank. I didn't know anything about this place, I just looked up stuff to do in NYC, saw one image of the Morgan Library and went 'yes, good' and put it on the list. I figured I'd learn about it there. In addition to his personal library, you can also see his office, his librarian's office, the modern galleries that were added and the large cafe in the center of the space.
His office:
Vault in his office with thick steel walls for his most valuable books:
Teeny books:
A volume of Dante his librarian Belle Greene spent a lot of time acquiring:
And what I spent a lot of time in there doing, trying to get selfies in the space:
As I've said entirely too often, I don't have pictures of me in places or doing things, so I am trying... through brute force. I don't even really know how to smile for a photo but if I take enough... something will work?
Oh, and a ring that was just found in JP's kid's desk:
That was Lord Byron's ring, and it was just hanging out in his drawer? It's a gimmel ring, which is multiple rings that fit together as a sign of love and conceal a heart under clasped hands.
There is almost nothing about JP in there, but lots about Belle da Costa Greene, his librarian. She was a light skinned black woman who passed as white for more of her career. The largest exhibit - which runs though May 4 - was on her, her life, showing photos of her and how they were shot to help her pass. So much on colorism. Two whole galleries were filled with pictures and drawings of her, her life, colorism in that era in general. Not what I was expecting to explore for my afternoon, my plan was 'try to get selfie in pretty room', but I was impressed.
Her office:
Her office had a large display of rolling seals - Each cluster is a seal, an actual imprint and then a photo enlarged to show detail:
Belle in her apartment with her personal library:
I was amused by the analog photoshopping, details where painted over to make it pop for print:
While JP collected European and medieval texts, she collected Asian and Middle Eastern texts and fine examples of Persian Script - from her collection:
Very little is know about her point of view on things. Someone was working on a biography of her, but the manuscript was lost? She was authorized to spent up to 100k of his funds on a single book, 100k in 1910 money, so about 3.3 mill. There is a pastel illustration of her at a 1911 auction bidding 50k for a single volume.
In addition to all that, there was yet another gallery of illuminated manuscripts, a stone passageway lead up to an gallery with a display on Kafka:
The hallways between the spaces also has painted ceilings, artifacts, rare book editions, etc.
And then another gallery with an exhibit about how often Medieval books were chopped up, pages treated like art prints, insets removed, etc. This is a painting and the book it was taken from:
A lot of medieval art we have is from books that were chopped up to treat the illuminations as like paintings, or sometimes bindings were removed to make the books cheaper to move over the ages.
And finally a depiction of how why so many valuable books, paintings, statues and other things from all over Europe got concentrated into one NYC townhouse:
I really lucked out with which temporary exhibits I got to see. The one of Belle da Costa Greene was amazing and I wish it was permanent. The two additional medieval book exhibits were great. The Kafka one I sort of breezed through.
no subject
Date: 2025-04-20 12:00 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2025-04-21 06:51 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2025-04-21 08:05 pm (UTC)From:This Savvy Librarian Was the True Force Behind New York’s Iconic Morgan Library
you likely learned far more while there than is in this brief view of her & her role at the library, but it was fascinating to me
no subject
Date: 2025-04-22 12:48 am (UTC)From:Kinda laughing at the becoming a 'public' institution after he died because, well, the public can pay to look at it? She's the one who started making materials available for people getting degrees in library science. I am sure the library has had done some public good, but even after being there and also looking a few things up, just not sure what
no subject
Date: 2025-04-20 12:56 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2025-04-21 06:51 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2025-04-22 05:35 am (UTC)From:And a good selfie! I'm not good at taking selfies, so I don't have many pictures of myself doing things either.
The information about his librarian is so fascinating! It is a shame that's not a permanent exhibit. Also a shame about the planned biography of her not happening, because I imagine it would be extremely interesting.
The rolling seals are very cool. The stuff about the way books would be cut up to remove the art and such is also really interesting. That's a thing I was aware of, but hadn't ever actually seen the art and the hole it left in the book it was removed from side by side that way.
no subject
Date: 2025-04-23 05:14 pm (UTC)From:I really wish there was at least a small, permanent section on her, but also it was interesting that pretty much nothing there was lionizing JP himself.
I really lucked out on the temp exhibits, the one on the cut up manuscripts with displays of examples was a temp exhibit and amazing. I've also never seen it displayed so well.
no subject
Date: 2025-04-24 05:01 am (UTC)From:The temp exhibits look amazing! I'm really glad you got the chance to see them!