A Day at The Morgan

The MORGAN LIBRARY & museum

I enjoyed wonderful visit to The Morgan Library & Museum with my sister. We started our visit at the Morgan Cafe’. The atmosphere, food and wine were all delightful. We enjoyed Hummus with hand-made chips, my sister a BLT and I the Za’atar Spiced Blue Crab Cobb salad - so delicious.

The Ceiling on our way to the rotating exhibit area

The magnificent ceiling on our way to the Beatrix Potter: Drawn to Nature exhibit which closed June 9th.

I was dumbstruck by Beatrix’s talent. The light from the candle in the below illuminated the room perfectly in this panel from Peter Cottontail.

Peter Cottontail

This image was taken in 1930 of the annex

We went upstairs and toured the exhibit: Walton Ford: Birds and Beasts of the Studio which runs through October 20, 2024.

We retraced our steps to enter the original part of the building.

Look at this door!

We turned right and entered The West Room - with J.Peirpont Morgan’s desk and the Vault, then walked into the Rotunda and onto The East Room and finally The North Room.

The west room

the West Room

the Ceiling in the West Room

The west room vault

The rotunda

Rotunda Ceiling

Cast of Washington’s face made from life is in the rotunda

The East Room is breathtaking and three stories of bookshelves. I took over 100 images in the library and about 20 were of this room.

The East Room

A few of the treasures - including one of the three Gutenberg Bibles the Morgan has in it’s collection. I also loved looking at the varied book titles.

Belle de Costa Greene (1879-1950) has been the subject of a work of historical fiction by Marie Benedict The Personal Librarian which I read and it peaked my interest in both her and the Library. She ran the Morgan Library for forty-three years starting in 1905. In the beginning she was the private librarian for J. Pierpont Morgan and then his son, Jack, and later as the first director of the Pierpont Morgan Library (now the Morgan Library & Museum). She is an extremely interesting person - she was a woman in what was a man’s field and she was also passing for white. I was so excited to learn an exhibition dedicated to her - Belle de Costa Greene: A Librarian’s Legacy will run October 25, 2024 - May 4, 2025. I also found an upcoming book will be released October 29, 2024 Belle da Costa Greene: A Librarian’s Legacy.

The North Room was Ms. Greene’s office. Look at the ceiling!

I couldn’t believe it took me so long to visit since it’s located in mid-town at 225 Madison Ave & 36th. I highly recommend a visit!

Til next time be well and I’ll see you over on Instagram!