J. P. Morgan (Wikipedia)
John Pierpont Morgan (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and investment banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age. As the head of the banking firm that ultimately became known as J. P. Morgan and Co., he was the driving force behind the wave of industrial consolidation in the United States spanning the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Over the course of his career on Wall Street, J.P. Morgan spearheaded the formation of several prominent multinational corporations including U.S. Steel, International Harvester and General Electric which subsequently fell under his supervision. He and his partners also held controlling interests in numerous other American businesses including Aetna, Western Union, Pullman Car Company and 21 railroads.
J. P. Morgan (Wikipedia)
Due to the extent of his dominance over U.S. finance, Morgan exercised enormous influence over the nation's policies and the market forces underlying its economy. During the Panic of 1907, he organized a coalition of financiers that saved the American monetary system from collapse.
As the Progressive Era's leading financier, J. P. Morgan's dedication to efficiency and modernization helped transform the shape of the American economy. Adrian Wooldridge characterized Morgan as America's "greatest banker."
Morgan died in Rome in his sleep in 1913 at the age of 75, leaving his fortune and business to his son, John Pierpont Morgan Jr.
Biographer Ron Chernow estimated his fortune at $80 million (equivalent to $1.2 billion in 2019).
Morgan Library—Site History (Wikipedia)
Phelps Stokes/Dodge houses
In the second half of the 19th century, the Morgan Library & Museum's site was occupied by four brownstone houses on the east side of Madison Avenue, between 36th Street to the south and 37th Street to the north. The houses were all built in 1852 or 1853 by members of the Phelps Stokes/Dodge family.
Three houses were built along Madison Avenue on lots measuring 65 feet wide by 157 feet deep, while a fourth house to the east measured 18 feet wide and stretched 197.5 feet between 37th and 36th Streets. All the houses were designed in an Italianate style with pink brownstone.
Morgan Library—Site History (Wikipedia)
Phelps Stokes/Dodge houses
The Madison Avenue houses, from north to south, were owned by Isaac Newton Phelps, William E. Dodge, and John Jay Phelps, while the 37th Street house was owned by George D. Phelps. The surrounding neighborhood of Murray Hill was not yet developed at the time, but began to grow after the Civil War.
Isaac Newton Phelps's daughter Helen married Anson Phelps Stokes in 1865. Their son, architect Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes, was born in the Isaac Newton Phelps house at 231 Madison Avenue two years later. Helen Phelps inherited the house following her father's death. In 1888, she doubled the size of her house and added an attic to plans by architect R. H. Robertson.
Hartford, Connecticut-born banker John Pierpont Morgan was looking to buy his own house by 1880. He wished to live in Murray Hill, where many of his and his wife's friends and business contacts lived.
Morgan Library—Site History (Wikipedia)
Phelps Stokes/Dodge houses
Morgan sought to buy John Jay Phelps's house at 219 Madison Avenue, at the corner with 36th Street, which was offered for $225,000. He acquired the house in 1881 and renovated it over the following two years.
The exterior was largely retained to harmonize with the other houses, owned by the Phelpses and Dodge, but the interior was extensively renovated by the Herter Brothers. During this time, Morgan began to amass a large collection of fine art, inspired by that of his father Junius Spencer Morgan. The art was stored in his house in England to avoid import taxes.
J. P. Morgan also began collecting rare books and other bindings upon his nephew Junius's suggestion; since books were not subject to import taxes, they were stored in the basement of his New York residence.
Morgan Library—Site History (Wikipedia)
Phelps Stokes/Dodge houses
In subsequent years, Morgan became one of the most influential financiers in the US. His collection grew quickly after his father died in 1890. While part of Morgan's collection was stored in the basement of his house, other items were loaned or placed in storage.
By 1900, the plots north and east of J. P. Morgan's house were available for sale after the death of Melissa Stokes Dodge, who lived in the Dodge mansion just north of Morgan's house. Morgan bought a 75-foot-wide plot east of his residence in 1900, and, two years later, acquired two adjacent lots with a total frontage of 50 feet.
On the far eastern side of that plot, McKim, Mead & White designed a six-story house at 33 East 36th Street for Morgan's daughter Louisa and her husband Herbert Satterlee, made of limestone, as contrasted with the brownstones on Madison Avenue. It was connected to Morgan's own home by tunnels.
Morgan Library—Site History (Wikipedia)
Phelps Stokes/Dodge houses
Morgan acquired William E. Dodge's home in April 1903. While the Satterlee house was under construction, the couple moved into the Dodge mansion; afterward, it was razed and replaced with a garden designed by Beatrix Farrand.
By December 1904, Morgan had also purchased the old Isaac Newton Stokes house at 229 Madison Avenue for his son J. P. Morgan Jr., known as "Jack". When Jack and his wife Jane finally moved into 229 Madison Avenue in 1905, he commissioned a major renovation of the interior and renumbered it as 231 Madison Avenue. Jack Morgan also performed $1,900 in changes to the house's exterior.
By 1907, J. P. Morgan's holdings on the city block included the whole 197.5-foot frontage on Madison Avenue, stretching 300 feet on 36th Street and 167 feet on 37th Street.
Morgan Library—History (Wikipedia)
Founding of library
By 1900, Morgan's book collection took up more space than could fit in his residence. On 36th Street, between his residence and the Satterlee house, Morgan initially hired Warren and Wetmore to design a Baroque-style library.
After rejecting their plans, Morgan hired Charles McKim of McKim, Mead & White to design the library in 1902. C. T. Wills was hired as the builder.
The library was to be a classical marble structure with a simple design; Morgan had told McKim that "I want a gem." Whitney Warren of Warren and Wetmore had then just completed the elaborately decorated New York Yacht Club Building, and Morgan's preference for an austere structure may have led him to reject Warren and Wetmore.
Morgan Library—History (Wikipedia)
Founding of library
Morgan and McKim planned the library's design for two years and, while McKim was responsible for the overall design, Morgan had final say over the aspects of the plan. An initial proposal for the design entailed building a projecting central mass with two recessed wings on either side, which Morgan deemed to be unwieldy. The second version of the plan reduced the size of the central mass and added a recessed entrance. The final designs called for the front facades of either wing to be flush with the central mass.
Morgan was insistent that the library be made of marble, even though he was fine with giving brownstone residences to the rest of his family except for his daughter Louisa.
Morgan Library—History (Wikipedia)
Founding of library
Construction began in April 1903, and the library was dubbed "Mr. Morgan's jewel case" by 1904. Morgan acquired two hundred cases of books, which were temporarily stored in the Lenox Library and moved to Morgan's personal library starting in December 1905. Around the same time, Morgan hired Belle da Costa Greene as his personal librarian.
The Wall Street Journal reported in June 1906, when the library was near completion, that Morgan had "wanted the most perfect structure that human hands could erect and was willing to pay whatever it cost." For example, the use of dry masonry marble blocks, an uncommon construction method in which masonry blocks were shaved precisely to remove the need for joints made of mortar, added $50,000 to the cost of construction.
Morgan Library—History (Wikipedia)
Founding of library
McKim had suggested the dry masonry blocks to Morgan after having unsuccessfully tried to place a knife blade in the joints of Athens's Erechtheion, and he ordered a plaster cast from his former employee Gorham Stevens, who worked in Athens. Morgan was impressed with the quality of the work, as McKim would recall in a February 1906 letter to his colleague, Stanford White. Even so, Morgan often upheld the library as McKim's accomplishment. The final design was more representative of the work of William M. Kendall from McKim, Mead & White.
The exterior is constructed of Tennessee pink marble, a simple recessed portico is flanked by a pair of stone lionesses.
Completed in 1906, Mr. Morgan's Library—as it was called for many years—is the historic heart of today's Morgan Library & Museum.
J. P. Morgan Library (from their website: themorgan.org)
As early as 1890 Morgan had begun to assemble a collection of illuminated, literary, and historical manuscripts, early printed books, and old master drawings and prints. Mr. Morgan's library, as it was known in his lifetime, 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. Completed three years before McKim's death, it is considered by many to be his masterpiece.
J. P. Morgan Library (from their website: themorgan.org)
In 1924, eleven years after Pierpont Morgan's death, his son, J. P. Morgan, Jr., realized that the library had become too important to remain in private hands. In what constituted one of the most momentous cultural gifts in U.S. history, he fulfilled his father's dream of making the library and its treasures available to scholars and the public alike by transforming it into a public institution.
Over the years—through purchases and generous gifts—The Morgan Library & Museum has continued to acquire rare materials as well as important music manuscripts, early children's books, Americana, and materials from the twentieth century. Without losing its decidedly domestic feeling, the Morgan also has expanded its physical space considerably.
In 1928, the Annex building was erected on the corner of Madison and 36th Street, replacing Pierpont Morgan's residence. The Annex was connected to the original McKim library by means of a gallery.
J. P. Morgan Library (from their website: themorgan.org)
In 1988, Jack Morgan's former residence—a mid-nineteenth century brownstone on Madison Avenue and 37th—also was added to the complex. The 1991 garden court was constructed to unite the various elements of the Morgan campus.
The largest expansion in the Morgan's history, adding 75,000 square feet to the campus, was completed in 2006. Designed by Pritzker Prize–winning architect Renzo Piano, the project increases exhibition space by more than fifty percent and adds important 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 new modestly scaled steel-and-glass pavilions. A soaring central court connects the buildings and serves as a gathering place for visitors in the spirit of an Italian piazza.
Morgan Library—the Rotunda
The interior of J. Pierpont Morgan’s Library consists of three rooms radiating off the east, north, and west sides of the Rotunda. The largest of the three served as Morgan's library, the room to the west was Morgan's private study, and the smallest of the three, to the north, was an office for Pierpont Morgan's librarian, Belle da Costa Greene.
Morgan Library—the Study
The Study is the most sumptuous and yet personal of the library rooms and the one that best reflects the personal tastes of its original occupant. It was here that Morgan met with art dealers, scholars, business colleagues, and friends.
Morgan Library—West Room
As Herbert Satterlee, Morgan's son-in-law and first biographer, later recalled, "No one could really know Mr. Morgan at all unless he had seen him in the West Room. This was because the room expressed his conception of beauty and color in varied and wonderful forms."
Morgan Library—the Study
One of the most remarkable features of the room is the antique wooden ceiling. McKim purchased it in Florence and had it reassembled to fit this room. James Wall Finn was commissioned to antique the ceiling with coats of arms copied from a volume on Renaissance bookplates in Morgan's collection. The precise date and origin of the ceiling are unknown.
The stained-glass panels set into the windows date from the fifteenth to the late seventeenth centuries; they are from memorial windows formerly in churches and monasteries in Switzerland.
The red damask wall covering bears the Chigi coat of arms, an eight-pointed star and mountain formation. The original silk was imported from Italy, where it had decorated the palace of the great banking family. Time and pollution took their toll: the present covering was replicated by Scalamandré.
Morgan Library—the Study
The mantelpiece has been ascribed to the studio of the Florentine sculptor Desiderio da Settignano (ca. 1430–64) and the bronze fire-dogs are of early sixteenth-century Paduan or Venetian manufacture. The kneeling angels holding candelabra are Florentine, of polychromed wood, and are contemporary with the andirons.
The settee, the desk, the desk chair, and the end table were custom made in 1906 by Cowtan & Sons of London, in England in the style of the Renaissance.
Morgan Library—the Study
Works in the Study
With few exceptions, all the paintings, sculpture, and decorative objects in the Study are from Pierpont Morgan's collections. The paintings are primarily by Italian and Northern Renaissance masters; the objets d'art range in date from the third millennium B.C. to the nineteenth century, and give some indication of the original scope and diversity of Morgan's once vast holdings. Following his death, his son gave away most of the collection; the Metropolitan Museum of Art was the principal beneficiary, receiving between 6,000 and 8,000 objects.
Morgan Library (from NYC-Arts)
The Morgan is not only a repository for some of the world's rarest books and manuscripts—it's an important museum of art as well. The library's holdings include treasures such as one of 23 copies of the original Declaration of Independence; an edition of the collected works of Phillis Wheatley, the first known African-American poet; Mozart's handwritten score of the Haffner Symphony; the only extant partial manuscript of Milton's Paradise Lost; an important collection of Mesopotamian seals; and a manuscript article by Albert Einstein describing how he developed his General Theory of Relativity.
Morgan Library (from NYC-Arts)
The library also possesses medieval and Renaissance illuminated manuscripts and many old master drawings and prints. In addition to maintaining this fine trove of primary source materials for scholars, the library mounts four large and eight smaller exhibitions every year. Drawing on its holdings and the loans from other institutions, these shows present some of the greatest works ever rendered on paper, ranging from Edward Curtis' early 20th-century photographs of Native Americans to precious drawings from important European collections.
Morgan Library Collections (from their website)--Books
Diversity and quality have been hallmarks of this collection, with works spanning Western book production from the earliest printed ephemera to important first editions from the twentieth century. The Morgan Library & Museum's holdings encompass a large number of high points in the history of printing, often exemplified by a lone surviving copy or a copy that is perfect in every way. Areas of exceptional strength include incunables, early children's books, fine bindings, and illustrated books.
The collection's strong base derives from the major acquisitions of Pierpont Morgan, who sought to establish in the United States a library worthy of the great European collections. It is rich in special and unique copies, first editions of classical authors, and works of notable printers, such as Jenson and Caxton.
Morgan Library Collections (from their website)—Books
Among the highlights are three Gutenberg Bibles, a strong collection of works by Lord Byron, Charles Dickens, Edgar Allan Poe, John Ruskin, Mark Twain, Herman Melville, and William Morris, and classic early children's books. The Carter Burden Collection of American Literature, a major 1998 gift, strengthens the Morgan's twentieth-century holdings with authors such as Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath, Vladimir Nabokov, Gertrude Stein, and Tennessee Williams
There are many beautiful and important bindings in the Morgan, but the bindings collection comprises about a thousand volumes acquired primarily to document the development of bookbinding. It is among the finest collections of bindings in this hemisphere, equally strong in quantity and quality. Areas of particular distinction are English, French, and Italian bindings of the sixteenth through the early nineteenth centuries
Printed Books and Bindings
Morgan Library Collections (from their website)
Literary and historical manuscripts
The Morgan's collection of literary and historical manuscripts includes complete manuscripts and working drafts of poetry and prose as well as correspondence, journals, and other documents of important British, European, and American authors, artists, scientists, and historical and political figures from the fifteenth through the twentieth centuries. The handwritten documents in the collection preserve the process of human thought and creativity—from mind to pen to paper—with an immediacy and power lacking in texts produced electronically.
The general pattern of the collection was established by Pierpont Morgan, who began to acquire literary and historical manuscripts on a large scale during the 1890s. He sought not to achieve comprehensiveness in any particular field but rather to assemble important documents related to events of historical significance, lives of notable individuals, and the creation of great literary works.
Morgan Library Collections (from their website)
Literary and historical manuscripts
By his death in 1913, he had gathered a number of exceptional documents handwritten or signed by influential figures in Western culture, including Elizabeth I, the signers of the Declaration of Independence, Napoléon, Sir Isaac Newton, and Voltaire.
Morgan had a great interest in major British writers; a centerpiece of his collection was—and still is—the sole surviving manuscript of John Milton's Paradise Lost, transcribed and corrected under the direction of the blind poet. Other collection highlights are Charles Dickens's manuscript of A Christmas Carol, Henry David Thoreau's journals, Thomas Jefferson's letters to his daughter Martha, and manuscripts and letters of Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, Lord Byron, Wilkie Collins, Albert Einstein, John Keats, Abraham Lincoln, and John Steinbeck.
Morgan Library Collections (from their website)
Literary and historical manuscripts
The Morgan's collection of literary and historical manuscripts has been enriched by many gifts and acquisitions, and twentieth-century holdings have increased significantly. The collection, particularly strong in artists' letters, was greatly enhanced by the Pierre Matisse Gallery Archives, the gift of the Pierre Matisse Foundation in 1997. These archives include more than fifteen hundred letters as well as records of the gallery installations of Balthus, Chagall, Dubuffet, Giacometti, Miró, and other twentieth-century artists. The Carter Burden Collection of American Literature includes important manuscripts and correspondence of John Cheever, Ezra Pound, and Tennessee Williams.
Morgan Library Collections (from their website)
Literary and historical manuscripts
The 1999 acquisition of The Paris Review Archive added correspondence, interviews, typescripts, and revised proofs of several hundred post-World War II writers, including Donald Hall, Ernest Hemingway, Jack Kerouac, Norman Mailer, Toni Morrison, George Plimpton, Philip Roth, and Anne Sexton. The Paris Review Archive also includes audio recordings of interviews with major twentieth-century authors.
Morgan Library--restoration
In 2010 the Morgan restored the interior of the 1906 library to its original grandeur. A new lighting system was installed to illuminate the extraordinary murals and decor of the four historic rooms. Intricate marble surfaces and applied ornamentation were cleaned, period furniture was reupholstered, and original fixtures—including three chandeliers removed decades ago—were restored and reinstalled.
A late-nineteenth-century Persian rug (similar to the one originally there) was laid in the grand East Room.
The ornate ceiling of the librarian's office, or North Room, was cleaned, and visitors are able to enter the refurbished space—now a gallery—for the first time.
New, beautifully crafted display cases throughout the 1906 library feature selections from the Morgan's collection of great works of art and literature from the ancient world to modern times.
Belle da Costa Greene (from the Morgan website)
Belle da Costa Greene (1879–1950) was one of the most prominent librarians in American history. She ran the Morgan Library for forty-three years—initially as the private librarian of J. Pierpont Morgan and then his son, Jack, and later as the inaugural director of the Pierpont Morgan Library (now the Morgan Library & Museum).
Not only did Greene build one of the most important collections of rare books and manuscripts in the United States, but she also transformed an exclusive private collection into a major public resource, originating the robust program of exhibitions, lectures, publications, and research services that continues today.
Belle da Costa Greene (from the Morgan website and Britannica)
The daughter of Genevieve Ida Fleet Greener and Richard T. Greener, Belle Greene (named Belle Marion Greener at birth) was born in 1883 and grew up in a predominantly African American community in Washington, DC. Her father was the first Black graduate of Harvard College and a prominent lawyer, educator, diplomat, and racial justice activist, and the first librarian of color at the Un. of South Carolina. Both parents were of mixed-race families and Belle was listed as "colored" on her birth certificate although both she and her parents were light-skinned.
Belle da Costa Greene (from the Morgan website and Britannica)
After Belle’s parents separated during her adolescence—her father abandoned the family--Genevieve changed her surname and that of her children to Greene. From the time Belle was a teenager, they described themselves as Americans of Portuguese descent (to explain her olive skin) and passed as white in a segregated and deeply racist society. For this reason, she also added da Costa to her name, as did her brother. Belle determined to “pass” as white, and they were listed so beginning with the 1905 New York state census.
Because Greener refused to support his children beyond the age of 18, Belle was unable to afford college and went from public school into a job at the Princeton University library. She soon mastered cataloging, served in the reference department, and became deeply interested in the library’s rare-book collection.
Belle da Costa Greene (from the Morgan website and Britannica)
Belle Greene was employed at the Princeton University Library when Junius Spencer Morgan, nephew of J. Pierpont Morgan and an ardent bibliophile, recommended her to his uncle, whose new library building was nearing completion.
From 1905 to 1908 Greene worked--with her own assistant, Ada Thurston—to bring order to Morgan’s great collection. Her ability and her forthright personality led Morgan to place increasing trust in her judgment.
Belle da Costa Greene (from the Morgan website and Britannica)
From 1908 she was traveling regularly to Europe as his agent, seeking out and purchasing additions to the Morgan Library collection. She worked indefatigably on these trips to increase her own knowledge of books and manuscripts, a pursuit in which she profited greatly by the tutelage of Sydney Cockrell of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge and later that of Bernard Berenson in Italy. She became a well-known and respected figure to the leading libraries, galleries, and dealers in Europe.
After Morgan’s death in 1913, Greene continued as private librarian to his son, J. P. Morgan Jr., who established the Pierpont Morgan Library as a public institution in 1924.
Greene was named its first director and served in that capacity until her retirement in 1948, two years before her death.
Belle da Costa Greene (from Wikipedia)
Trusted for her expertise (Greene was an expert in illuminated manuscripts) as well as her bargaining prowess with dealers, Greene spent millions of dollars buying and selling rare manuscripts, books, and art for Morgan. She told Morgan – who was willing to pay any price for important works – that her goal was to make his library "pre-eminent, especially for incunabula, manuscripts, bindings, and the classics."
In a 1912 profile about Greene, the New York Times referred to her "force of persuasion and intelligence," and recounted her pre-auction purchase of seventeen highly sought after William Caxton books on behalf of the Morgan library.
NOTE: William Caxton (c. 1422 – c. 1491) was an English merchant, diplomat, and writer. He is thought to be the first person to introduce a printing press into England, in 1476, and as a printer was the first English retailer of printed books.
Belle da Costa Greene (from Wikipedia)
She was particularly focused on making rare books accessible to the public, rather than locked away in the vaults of private collectors. She was quite successful in this regard - for instance, when the Morgan Library became a public institution and she was named its first director in 1924, she celebrated by mounting a series of exhibitions, one of which drew a record 170,000 people.
In a history of American art auctions, Greene was described as having a "a wild, gay humour" notably distinguishing her from Morgan's more serious demeanor.
Belle da Costa Greene (from Wikipedia)
J. P. Morgan's biographer Jean Strouse described an example of the relationship between Morgan and Greene:
"Morgan hated paying customs duties, especially on art objects, and, like countless of other travelers before and since, evaded them whenever possible. He quickly enlisted Greene as an ally in tax evasion.
One year she managed, by artfully letting the customs agents find several dutiable items in her luggage, to draw their attention away from a painting, three bronzes, and a very expensive watch he had asked her to buy in London." `When I landed at the library with all of JP's treasures . . . ,' she reported to a friend, 'well he & I did a war dance & laughed in great glee.'"
Belle da Costa Greene (from Wikipedia)
After Morgan's death in 1913, Greene continued in her role working for his son J. P. Morgan Jr.
When Morgan died In 1913, he left Greene $50,000 (equivalent to $1,400,000 in 2021) in his will, enough capital for her to live on comfortably, though she continued to supplement her inheritance with the $10,000 a year salary that she earned at the library—a huge sum in those days, especially for a woman.
Beyond her library role, Greene took on various positions within the profession. She was one of the first women named as a fellow of the Mediaeval Academy of America and was a fellow in perpetuity with the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Greene also served on the editorial boards of Gazette des Beaux Art and ARTnews.
Belle da Costa Greene (from Wikipedia)
Greene never married. Her mother, Genevieve, lived with her for decades and Greene played an active role in raising her nephew Robert Mackenzie Leveridge, who had been born in her home. Asked if she was Morgan's mistress, Greene is said to have replied, "We tried!" She had a lasting romantic relationship with the Renaissance Italian art expert Bernard Berenson, whom she met in 1909.
Greene died on May 10, 1950, at St. Luke's Hospital in New York City. She destroyed her personal papers before her death but records held by others persist, including letters written to Berenson. Her professional correspondence is also archived in the collections of The Morgan Library & Museum.
Belle da Costa Greene (from the Morgan website)
Greene’s legacy is powerful and far-reaching. While the significant role she played as J. Pierpont Morgan’s librarian is often acknowledged, her tenure in that position lasted a mere seven years. During her decades-long career as a library executive, she not only acquired countless significant collection items but also made immeasurable contributions to bibliography and scholarship, mentored colleagues at the Morgan and elsewhere, facilitated widespread collection access through object loans and ambitious photographic services, and promoted the work of distinguished women scholars and librarians.
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