Morgan Library’s 100th Birthday: A Look at Its Formidable First Director

Belle da Costa Greene: A Librarian’s Legacy isn’t a title that glitters on a marquee, but this exhibition at the Morgan Library is fascinating. It’s a 100th-anniversary show for the distinguished library and art museum based on the collection of the Gilded Age mogul J. P. Morgan. Greene (1879–1950) was Morgan’s librarian and curator from 1905 till his death in 1913, advising the collector willing to spend anything for the very best in rare books and manuscripts. She continued working for Jack Morgan, J. P.’s son and heir, running and expanding what was still a private library until the place opened as a public museum in 1924. She was then appointed the Morgan Library’s first director, serving until she retired in 1948.

Of the Morgan Library, “hope to be able to say some day that there is neither rival nor equal,” Greene wrote in 1909, and I think we can say it today since the Morgan Library’s unique. The collection is superb, and its location in Morgan’s Renaissance Revival palazzo, much expanded since 1924, is glorious. And, still, more than 75 years after Greene retired, it’s her baby. She was extraordinary for her drive and smarts, and extraordinary for being among the tiny number of women museum directors in her era. She was extraordinary, too, in being a black woman who, her entire adult life, passed as white.

About the Author

Brian T. Allen

Brian T. Allen is National Review’s art critic.

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Belle da Costa Greene: A Librarian’s Legacy isn’t a title that glitters on a marquee, but this exhibition at the Morgan Library is fascinating. It’s a 100th-anniversary show for the distinguished library and art museum based on the collection of the Gilded Age mogul J. P. Morgan. Greene (1879–1950) was Morgan’s librarian and curator from 1905 till his death in 1913, advising the collector willing to spend anything for the very best in rare books and manuscripts. She continued working for Jack Morgan, J. P.’s son and heir, running and expanding what was still a private library until the place opened as a public museum in 1924. She was then appointed the Morgan Library’s first director, serving until she retired in 1948.

Of the Morgan Library, “hope to be able to say some day that there is neither rival nor equal,” Greene wrote in 1909, and I think we can say it today since the Morgan Library’s unique. The collection is superb, and its location in Morgan’s Renaissance Revival palazzo, much expanded since 1924, is glorious. And, still, more than 75 years after Greene retired, it’s her baby. She was extraordinary for her drive and smarts, and extraordinary for being among the tiny number of women museum directors in her era. She was extraordinary, too, in being a black woman who, her entire adult life, passed as white.