The Morgan Library & Museum, formerly the Pierpont Morgan Library, is a museum and research library in the
Murray Hill neighborhood of
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the List of co ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...
. It is situated at 225
Madison Avenue
Madison Avenue is a north-south avenue in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, United States, that carries northbound one-way traffic. It runs from Madison Square (at 23rd Street) to meet the southbound Harlem River Drive at 142nd St ...
, between 36th Street to the south and 37th Street to the north.
The Morgan Library & Museum is composed of several structures. The main building was designed by
Charles McKim of the firm of
McKim, Mead and White, with an annex designed by
Benjamin Wistar Morris. A 19th-century Italianate brownstone house at 231 Madison Avenue, built by
Isaac Newton Phelps, is also part of the grounds. The museum and library also contains a glass entrance building designed by
Renzo Piano
Renzo Piano (; born 14 September 1937) is an Italian architect. His notable buildings include the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (with Richard Rogers, 1977), The Shard in London (2012), the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City ...
and
Beyer Blinder Belle. The main building and its interior is a
New York City designated landmark
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...
and a
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
, while the house at 231 Madison Avenue is a New York City landmark.
The site was formerly occupied by residences of the Phelps family, one of which banker
J. P. Morgan had purchased in 1880. The Morgan Library was founded in 1906 to house Morgan's private library, which included manuscripts and printed books, as well as his collection of prints and drawings. The main building was constructed between 1902 and 1906 for $1.2 million. The library was made a public institution in 1924 by J. P. Morgan's son
John Pierpont Morgan Jr.
John Pierpont Morgan Jr. (September 7, 1867 – March 13, 1943) was an American banker, finance executive, and philanthropist. He inherited the family fortune and took over the business interests including J.P. Morgan & Co. after his father J. ...
, in accordance with his father's will, and the annex was constructed in 1928. The glass entrance building was added when Morgan Library & Museum was renovated in 2006.
History
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 wide by deep, while a fourth house to the east measured wide and stretched between 37th and 36th Streets. All the houses were designed in an Italianate style with pink brownstone.
The Madison Avenue houses, from north to south, were owned by
Isaac Newton Phelps,
William E. Dodge
William Earl Dodge Sr. (September 4, 1805 – February 9, 1883) was an American businessman, politician, and activist. He was referred to as one of the "Merchant Princes" of Wall Street in the years leading up to the American Civil War. Dodge ...
, and
John Jay Phelps
John Jay Phelps (October 25, 1810, at Simsbury, Connecticut – May 12, 1869, Simsbury, Connecticut) was an early railroad baron and financier, who was one of the founders of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad and served as its firs ...
, 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
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by state ...
.
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.
Morgan estate
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 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
Junius Spencer Morgan I (April 14, 1813 – April 8, 1890) was an American banker and financier, as well as the father of John Pierpont "J.P." Morgan and patriarch to the Morgan banking house.
In 1864, he established J. S. Morgan & Co. in L ...
. 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 Junius often refers to:
* Junius (writer), the pseudonym of an 18th-century British political writer of strongly Whig principles
* The nomen of the ancient Roman
* or , the month of June on the ancient Roman calendar
* Rosa Luxemburg's ''Junius Pa ...
's suggestion; since books were not subject to import taxes, they were stored in the basement of his New York residence.
In subsequent years, Morgan became one of the most influential financiers in the United States.
J. P. Morgan's collection began to grow 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 became 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 plot east of his residence in 1900,
and, two years later, acquired two adjacent lots with a total frontage of .
On the far eastern side of that plot,
McKim, Mead & White
McKim, Mead & White was an American architectural firm that came to define architectural practice, urbanism, and the ideals of the American Renaissance in fin de siècle New York. The firm's founding partners Charles Follen McKim (1847–1909), ...
designed a six-story house at 33 East 36th Street for Morgan's daughter Louisa and her husband
Herbert Satterlee.
The Satterlees' house was made of limestone, as contrasted with the brownstones on Madison Avenue. It was connected to Morgan's own home by tunnels.
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., who was known as "Jack". When Jack Morgan 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.
J. P. Morgan's holdings on the city block, by 1907, included the whole frontage on Madison Avenue, stretching on 36th Street and on 37th Street.
Founding of library
Construction
Morgan's book collection took up more space than could fit in his residence by 1900. On 36th Street, between his residence and the Satterlee house, Morgan initially hired
Warren and Wetmore to design a Baroque-style library.
After rejecting Warren and Wetmore's 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 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.
Construction began in April 1903,
and the library was being dubbed as "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
Belle da Costa Greene (November 26, 1879 – May 10, 1950) was an American librarian best known for managing and developing the personal library of J. P. Morgan. After Morgan's death in 1913, Greene continued as librarian for his son, Jack ...
as his personal librarian.
''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' 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 usage of dry masonry marble blocks, an uncommon construction method in which masonry blocks were shaved precisely to remove the need for
joints
A joint or articulation (or articular surface) is the connection made between bones, ossicles, or other hard structures in the body which link an animal's skeletal system into a functional whole.Saladin, Ken. Anatomy & Physiology. 7th ed. McGraw- ...
made of
mortar, added $50,000 to the cost of construction.
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
The Erechtheion (latinized as Erechtheum /ɪˈrɛkθiəm, ˌɛrɪkˈθiːəm/; Ancient Greek: Ἐρέχθειον, Greek: Ερέχθειο) or Temple of Athena Polias is an ancient Greek Ionic temple- telesterion on the north side of the Acropo ...
, 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
Stanford White (November 9, 1853 – June 25, 1906) was an American architect. He was also a partner in the architectural firm McKim, Mead & White, one of the most significant Beaux-Arts firms. He designed many houses for the rich, in additio ...
.
Even so, Morgan often upheld the library as an accomplishment of McKim's.
The final design was more representative of the work of
William M. Kendall
William Mitchell Kendall (13 February 1856 – 8 August 1941) was an American architect who spent his career with the New York firm of McKim, Mead & White, the leading American architectural practice at the turn of the century, renowned for its ...
from McKim, Mead & White.
Opening and early years
Morgan began to use his office in November 1906 with a reception for the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 100 ...
's purchasing committee. The details were not completed until January 1907, and the Morgan collection was relocated into the library later that year.
Morgan's library had cost $1.2 million (equivalent to $ million in ).
Several publications praised the completed library.
In 1906, the ''Real Estate Record and Guide'' wrote of McKim, Mead & White: "the new Morgan Library, in Thirty-sixth street, is among their most carefully studied designs." The library building was described in another publication as "one of the Seven Wonders of the Edwardian World".
A correspondent for the
London ''Times'', in 1908. characterized John Pierpont Morgan as "probably the greatest collector of things splendid and beautiful and rare who has ever lived". During the
Panic of 1907
The Panic of 1907, also known as the 1907 Bankers' Panic or Knickerbocker Crisis, was a financial crisis that took place in the United States over a three-week period starting in mid-October, when the New York Stock Exchange fell almost 50% from ...
, Morgan used his library to convene a meeting among the city's major financial figures, with bank presidents meeting in the east room and trust company presidents in the west room. To find a solution to halt the panic, he locked his guests in the library overnight, and his secretary relayed messages between the two rooms.
Morgan continued to collect material for his private library until his death in March 1913.
His estate was valued at $128 million (about $ billion in ), over half of which lay in the worth of his collection.
J. P. Morgan's will bequeathed the art collection to Jack, with the request that Jack make the collection "permanently available for the instruction and pleasure of the American people".
The month after J. P. Morgan's death, the New York state legislature granted a two-year exemption enabling Jack to import his father's overseas collection without having to pay import duties. However, Jack Morgan sold off much of the overseas collection rather than importing it. During 1914, the collection was displayed in full at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the only time the whole collection was displayed.
The import duty exemption expired in April 1915, and Jack sold various items in the collection to pay the inheritance taxes and to raise money for the cash bequests in his father's will.
The taxes were substantial, totaling $7.5 million in 1916. Frances Morgan, Jack's mother and John Pierpont's widow, continued to live at J. P. Morgan's old residence until her death in November 1924.
Public institution and expansion
Incorporation and mid-20th century
Jack and Jane Morgan continued to employ da Costa Greene as the librarian, expanding the collection with items in which they were personally interested.
In March 1924, the Pierpont Morgan Library was incorporated as a public institution.
The Morgans transferred the library's building, and the land under J. P. and Frances Morgan's old residence at 219 Madison Avenue, to the Pierpont Morgan Library.
The move came as, despite Jack's opposition, the surrounding stretch of Madison Avenue was being redeveloped as a business street.
By 1927, the library was planning to double its area; the old J. P. Morgan residence was being demolished to make way for the annex.
The plans called for an expanded two-story Italianate style structure designed by
Benjamin Wistar Morris, with space for offices, exhibitions, and a research library.
The annex, made of the same Tennessee marble as the original, was completed in 1928.
While architectural historian
Robert A. M. Stern said the addition "did not frame McKim's jewel box so much as sidle up to it like an unattractive sibling",
Norval White and Elliot Willensky thought the annex "modestly defers to its master".
Jack Morgan continued to live at 231 Madison Avenue until his death in 1943; his wife had died in 1925. Subsequently, the
United Lutheran Church in America bought that house for its headquarters, and built a five-story annex in 1957.
Next door, the Pierpont Morgan Library continued to expand its collections.
The Fellows of The Pierpont Morgan Library was formed in 1949 to raise funds for the collections and distribute funds to scholars and publications.
In the following decade, the Pierpont Morgan Library started to host concerts and tours.
In 1960, the main library and its annex were connected by a cloister structure. The renovation, designed by J. P. Morgan's nephew Alexander P. Morgan,
was completed in 1962 and included office space, a gallery, and meeting space.
The Phelps Stokes/Morgan house was designated by the
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...
(LPC) in 1965 as one of the first structures to be protected under New York City's Landmarks Law.
Next door, the LPC designated the exterior of the library's main building as a city landmark in 1966,
and that structure was declared a
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
the same year.
However, the Lutheran Church had hoped to erect an office structure on the site of the Phelps Stokes/Morgan house and heavily opposed the house's designation. As a result, in 1974, the landmark status was removed from that house following a
New York Court of Appeals
The New York Court of Appeals is the highest court in the Unified Court System of the State of New York. The Court of Appeals consists of seven judges: the Chief Judge and six Associate Judges who are appointed by the Governor and confirmed by t ...
ruling.
The Pierpont Morgan Library constructed a five-story, addition to the annex in 1975 to plans by Platt, Wyckoff & Coles; the addition was intended to house storage vaults and offices.
In 1982, the main library building's interior was designated a city landmark.
Late 20th century to present
In 1988, the Pierpont Morgan Library bought 231 Madison Avenue from the Lutheran Church. The garden between the house and the main building's annex was redeveloped with a glass conservatory designed by
Voorsanger and Mills. The conservatory, the first major expansion to the Pierpont Morgan Library since the completion of Morris's annex, was finished in 1991 and connected the two structures.
The house became the Pierpont Morgan Library's bookstore.
In 1999, the Morgan opened a drawing center on the second floor of the annex, designed by
Beyer Blinder Belle.
The same year, the Morgan received $10 million from
Eugene V. Thaw and Clare E. Thaw; these funds were used to establish the Thaw Conservation Center in 2002.
By 2001, there were plans to expand the Pierpont Morgan Library.
The library presented preliminary plans to the LPC in 2002, in which it would build a new structure between 231 Madison Avenue and the original library's annex, to be designed by Italian architect
Renzo Piano
Renzo Piano (; born 14 September 1937) is an Italian architect. His notable buildings include the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (with Richard Rogers, 1977), The Shard in London (2012), the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City ...
and Beyer Blinder Belle. The commission also sought to restore landmark status to 231 Madison Avenue, a move the library did not oppose. In 2003, the Pierpont Morgan Library's buildings were closed for construction and expansion. In the interim, it sponsored numerous traveling exhibitions around the country. The library reopened on April 29, 2006, as the Morgan Library & Museum. With the completion of the renovation, the private office and vault of J. P. Morgan was also opened to the public.
A restoration of the main building's interior spaces was completed in 2010.
The Morgan Library & Museum announced a four-year restoration of the main building's facade in February 2019, the first in the building's history. As part of the project, the landscape designer Todd Longstaffe-Gowan designed a garden surrounding the original library building.
The LPC had initially expressed opposition to the construction of the garden, as there had not been a garden around the original Morgan Library. The agency approved the project after reviewing letters and other correspondences from J. P. Morgan, who had indicated that he had indeed wanted a garden around the library.
In addition, Integrated Conservation Resources restored the main building. The project cost $13 million in total.
The renovation was completed in 2022.
Collection
Manuscripts
The most internationally significant part of the Morgan Library and Museum's collection is its relatively small but very select collection of
illuminated manuscript
An illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared document where the text is often supplemented with flourishes such as borders and miniature illustrations. Often used in the Roman Catholic Church for prayers, liturgical services and psalms, th ...
s. Among the more famous manuscripts are the
Morgan Bible,
Morgan Beatus,
Hours of Catherine of Cleves
The Hours of Catherine of Cleves (Morgan Library and Museum, now divided in two parts, M. 917 and M. 945, the latter sometimes called the Guennol Hours or, less commonly, the Arenberg Hours) is an ornately illuminated manuscript in the Gothic ar ...
,
Farnese Hours
The Farnese Hours is an illuminated manuscript created by Giulio Clovio for Cardinal Alessandro Farnese in 1546. Considered the masterpiece of Clovio, this book of hours is now in the possession of the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City.
...
,
Morgan Black Hours, and
Codex Glazier. The Morgan holds a copy of the letter written by
Andrea Corsali from India in 1516; this letter, one of five in existence, contains the first description of the
Southern Cross.
The
manuscript
A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced ...
collection also contains authors' original manuscripts, including some by Sir
Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy' ...
and
Honoré de Balzac
Honoré de Balzac ( , more commonly , ; born Honoré Balzac;Jean-Louis Dega, La vie prodigieuse de Bernard-François Balssa, père d'Honoré de Balzac : Aux sources historiques de La Comédie humaine, Rodez, Subervie, 1998, 665 p. 20 May 179 ...
.
Other objects include a
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley ( ; 4 August 17928 July 1822) was one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame during his lifetime, but recognition of his ach ...
notebook; writings from
Émile Zola
Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (, also , ; 2 April 184029 September 1902) was a French novelist, journalist, playwright, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism, and an important contributor to the development of ...
; originals of poems by
Robert Burns
Robert Burns (25 January 175921 July 1796), also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who ha ...
;
a unique
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...
manuscript of ''
A Christmas Carol'' with handwritten edits and markup from the author;
and a journal by
Henry David Thoreau. There are also writings from
George Sand
Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francueil (; 1 July 1804 – 8 June 1876), best known by her pen name George Sand (), was a French novelist, memoirist and journalist. One of the most popular writers in Europe in her lifetime, bein ...
,
William Makepeace Thackeray
William Makepeace Thackeray (; 18 July 1811 – 24 December 1863) was a British novelist, author and illustrator. He is known for his Satire, satirical works, particularly his 1848 novel ''Vanity Fair (novel), Vanity Fair'', a panoramic portra ...
,
Lord Byron
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and Peerage of the United Kingdom, peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and h ...
, and
Charlotte Brontë
Charlotte Brontë (, commonly ; 21 April 1816 – 31 March 1855) was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood and whose novels became classics of English literature.
She enlisted i ...
, as well as manuscripts of nine of
Sir Walter Scott's novels, including ''
Ivanhoe
''Ivanhoe: A Romance'' () by Walter Scott is a historical novel published in three volumes, in 1819, as one of the Waverley novels. Set in England in the Middle Ages, this novel marked a shift away from Scott’s prior practice of setting st ...
''.
The Morgan's musical manuscript collection is second in size only behind the
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The librar ...
.
These include autographed and annotated libretti and scores from Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Mahler and Verdi, and
Mozart's Haffner Symphony in D Major.
The collection also contains the scraps of paper on which
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
jotted down "
Blowin' in the Wind
"Blowin' in the Wind" is a song written by Bob Dylan in 1962.
It was released as a single and included on his album ''The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan'' in 1963. It has been described as a protest song and poses a series of rhetorical questions about ...
" and "
It Ain't Me Babe". It also contains a considerable collection of Victoriana, including one of the most important collections of
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan was a Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900), who jointly created fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which '' H.M.S. ...
manuscripts and related artifacts.
Books and prints
The Morgan contains a large collection of
incunabula, prints, and drawings of European artists, namely
Leonardo,
Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known as Michelangelo (), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was in ...
,
Raphael
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual ...
,
Rembrandt
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (, ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally co ...
,
Rubens
Sir Peter Paul Rubens (; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque tradition ...
,
Gainsborough,
Dürer, and
Picasso
Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th century, he is kn ...
. The collection includes early printed
Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts o ...
s, among them three
Gutenberg Bible
The Gutenberg Bible (also known as the 42-line Bible, the Mazarin Bible or the B42) was the earliest major book printed using mass-produced movable metal type in Europe. It marked the start of the "Gutenberg Revolution" and the age of printed b ...
s.
There are also many examples of fine
bookbinding in the collection.
Felice Stampfle was appointed the first Curator of Drawings and Prints at the Morgan Library in 1945.
The Morgan also contains material from ancient Egypt and medieval liturgical objects (including
Coptic literature
Coptic literature is the body of writings in the Coptic language of Egypt, the last stage of the indigenous Egyptian language. It is written in the Coptic alphabet. The study of the Coptic language and literature is called Coptology.
Definition
S ...
examples);
William Blake's original drawings for
his edition
His or HIS may refer to:
Computing
* Hightech Information System, a Hong Kong graphics card company
* Honeywell Information Systems
* Hybrid intelligent system
* Microsoft Host Integration Server
Education
* Hangzhou International School, ...
of the ''Book of Job''; and concept drawings for ''
The Little Prince'' by
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
The Morgan has one of the world's greatest collections of ancient Near Eastern
cylinder seals, small stone cylinders finely engraved with images for transfer to clay by rolling.
Artwork and other collections
The collection still includes some
paintings collected by Morgan between 1907 and 1911 (works by
Hans Memling
Hans Memling (also spelled Memlinc; c. 1430 – 11 August 1494) was a painter active in Flanders, who worked in the tradition of Early Netherlandish painting. He was born in the Middle Rhine region and probably spent his childhood in Mainz. H ...
,
Perugino
Pietro Perugino (, ; – 1523), born Pietro Vannucci, was an Italian Renaissance painter of the Umbrian school, who developed some of the qualities that found classic expression in the High Renaissance. Raphael was his most famous pupil.
Ea ...
, and
Cima da Conegliano
Giovanni Battista Cima, also called Cima da Conegliano (c. 1459 – c. 1517), was an Italian Renaissance painter, who mostly worked in Venice. He can be considered part of the Venetian school, though he was also influenced by Antonello da ...
). However, this has never been the collection's focus, and
Ghirlandaio's masterpiece ''Portrait of Giovanna Tornabuoni'' was sold to
Thyssen when the Great Depression worsened the Morgan family's finances. The Morgan also holds medieval artworks such as the
Stavelot Triptych
The Stavelot Triptych is a medieval reliquary and portable altar in gold and enamel intended to protect, honor and display pieces of the True Cross. and the metalwork covers of the
Lindau Gospels.
Other notable artists of the Morgan Library and Museum are
Jean de Brunhoff
Jean de Brunhoff (; 9 December 1899 – 16 October 1937) was a French writer and illustrator remembered best for creating the Babar series of children's books concerning a fictional elephant, the first of which was published in 1931.
Early life
...
,
Paul Cézanne
Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century conception of artistic endeavour to a new and radically d ...
,
Vincent van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inc ...
,
John Leech,
Gaston Phoebus,
Rembrandt van Rijn, and
John Ruskin
John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and po ...
. In 2018, the Morgan acquired the drawing ''Bathers'' by
Renoir
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "Re ...
, a previously unexhibited work.
Architecture
Main building
The main building (also known as the McKim Building), constructed between 1902 and 1906 as the original structure in the complex, was designed in the
Classical Revival style
Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. The prevailing style ...
by Charles Follen McKim of McKim, Mead & White.
The original building occupies a lot of ,
and was intended to be similarly scaled to
New York Public Library
The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress) ...
branches of the era.
The 1928 annex to the building, designed by Benjamin Wistar Morris to harmonize with McKim's original, contains architectural detail differing from that of the original structure.
The annex measures ,
with a later addition.
Facade
The building has a facade of
Tennessee marble
Tennessee marble is a type of crystalline limestone found only in East Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. Long esteemed by architects and builders for its pinkish-gray color and the ease with which it is polished, this stone has been u ...
.
McKim took his inspiration from the
Villa Giulia
The Villa Giulia is a villa in Rome, Italy. It was built by Pope Julius III in 1551–1553 on what was then the edge of the city. Today it is publicly owned, and houses the Museo Nazionale Etrusco, a collection of Etruscan art and artifacts.
...
, particularly the attic of its
Nymphaeum.
Further inspiration came from the
Villa Medici
The Villa Medici () is a Mannerist villa and an architectural complex with a garden contiguous with the larger Borghese gardens, on the Pincian Hill next to Trinità dei Monti in Rome, Italy. The Villa Medici, founded by Ferdinando I de' Med ...
in Rome, constructed in the 16th century by
Annibale Lippi
Annibale Lippi (16th century-Rome, after 18 November 1581) was an Italian architect active during the second half of 16th century. He was son of the sculptor and architect Nanni di Baccio Bigio. Pupil of Francesco Salviati, his only certain work ...
.
The exterior walls are made of dry masonry, which allowed the marble blocks to be set evenly, thus requiring a minimal amount of mortar.
Tinfoil sheeting was placed between the blocks to prevent moisture buildup.
The tinfoil sheeting measures thick and is laid between the horizontal joints.
Charles T. Wills was responsible for the dry masonry construction.
''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' reported upon the library's completion, "No other building in Europe or America was ever erected with this care."
The main entrance is a
Palladian arch at the center of the 36th Street facade. It is composed of an arched opening wide, flanked by two openings under flat
lintel
A lintel or lintol is a type of beam (a horizontal structural element) that spans openings such as portals, doors, windows and fireplaces. It can be a decorative architectural element, or a combined ornamented structural item. In the case o ...
s, each of which is wide. There are two recessed niches on that facade, one on each side of the entrance.
Surrounding the library is a garden, which covers and contains artifacts from J. P. Morgan's collection.
The garden also contains pathways embedded with pebbles, which Sicilian craftsman Orazio Porto laid manually.
The central archway contains a
portico
A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many c ...
with a
groin vault
A groin vault or groined vault (also sometimes known as a double barrel vault or cross vault) is produced by the intersection at right angles of two barrel vaults. Honour, H. and J. Fleming, (2009) ''A World History of Art''. 7th edn. London: L ...
ed ceiling,
supported by four
Ionic columns, two on each side.
A flight of steps, leading to the main entrance, is flanked by two lionesses sculpted by
Edward Clark Potter
Edward Clark Potter (November 26, 1857 – June 21, 1923) was an American sculptor best known for his equestrian and animal statues. His most famous works are the marble lions, nicknamed ''Patience'' and ''Fortitude'', in front of the New Yor ...
, who would later create the two lions that guard the
New York Public Library Main Branch
The Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, commonly known as the Main Branch, 42nd Street Library or the New York Public Library, is the flagship building in the New York Public Library system in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. T ...
.
Above the entranceway are allegorical
roundels and panels, which was originally given to
Andrew O'Connor and then reassigned to
Adolph Weinman after O'Connor could not complete his contract.
These panels depict tragic and lyric poetry.
The portico has a geometric mosaic tile floor with marble.
Inside the portico is a pair of bronze doors, imported from
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...
and made in the style of
Lorenzo Ghiberti's doors at the
Florence Baptistery
The Florence Baptistery, also known as the Baptistery of Saint John ( it, Battistero di San Giovanni), is a religious building in Florence, Italy, and has the status of a minor basilica. The octagonal baptistery stands in both the Piazza del D ...
.
Each door contains five carved bronze panels, which depict allegorical scenes.
The 36th Street facade contains six
Doric style
pilaster
In classical architecture, a pilaster is an architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the main wal ...
s flanking the main entrance.
Interior
The interior of the main library building is richly decorated, with a
polychrome
Polychrome is the "practice of decorating architectural elements, sculpture, etc., in a variety of colors." The term is used to refer to certain styles of architecture, pottery or sculpture in multiple colors.
Ancient Egypt
Colossal statue ...
rotunda. It leads to three public rooms: Morgan's private study to the west, the librarian's office to the north, and the original library to the east.
The rotunda has a ceiling with murals and plasterwork inspired by
Raphael
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual ...
, created by
H. Siddons Mowbray
Harry Siddons Mowbray (August 5, 1858 – 1928) was an American artist. He executed various painting commissions for J.P. Morgan, F.W. Vanderbilt, and other clients. He served as director of the American Academy in Rome from 1902–1904.
Biog ...
.
This ceiling contains themed murals in the
lunette panels, which allude to material in Morgan's collection, as well as a central dome, which contains roundels and rectangular panels with various figures or motifs.
The rotunda floors are clad with multicolored marble, the pattern of which is based on the floor of the
Villa Pia in Vatican City.
The walls contain mosaic baseboards and are separated into panels with vertical pilasters, topped by Composite style pilasters. The doorways to the rooms on the east and west are made of white marble, topped by marble
entablature
An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...
s and flanked by green marble columns.
The interior was designed with two rooms for exhibition.
The East Library features triple-tiered bookcases, the upper tiers of which could only be accessed by balconies.
On the east wall of the East Library is a fireplace with a tapestry showing the "Triumph of Avarice".
The fireplace itself had been imported from Italy.
Mowbray designed eighteen lunettes and spandrels atop each wall, modeled after the work of
Pinturicchio
Pinturicchio, or Pintoricchio (, ; born Bernardino di Betto; 1454–1513), also known as Benetto di Biagio or Sordicchio, was an Italian painter during the Renaissance. He acquired his nickname (meaning "little painter") because of his sma ...
.
The figures in the lunettes alternate between allegorical female muses and notable artists, explorers, or teachers.
Zodiac symbols are placed on the spandrels, as the signs of the zodiac were particularly important to J. P. Morgan.
Particularly prominent are the zodiac signs over the entrance:
Aries corresponds to J. P. Morgan's birth on April 17, 1837, and
Gemini corresponds to his marriage to Frances Louisa Tracy on May 31, 1865. Two additional spandrels contain allegorical motifs that depict changing seasons.
The East Library had three levels of shelves and is the largest room in the main library wing.
Morgan's study, now the West Library, was described by historian Wayne Andrews as "one of the greatest achievements of American interior decoration".
The design of the study reflected Morgan's tastes; as his son-in-law Herbert Satterlee said, "No one could really know Mr. Morgan at all unless he had seen him in the West Room."
The West Library contains low wooden bookshelves as well as a fireplace with a marble
mantelpiece.
The decorative elements include stained glass panels in the study's windows, as well as a wall covering of red
damask
Damask (; ar, دمشق) is a reversible patterned fabric of silk, wool, linen, cotton, or synthetic fibers, with a pattern formed by weaving. Damasks are woven with one warp yarn and one weft yarn, usually with the pattern in warp-faced satin ...
.
The current damask covering, a replica by Scalamandré, is a copy of a pattern that was displayed at Rome's
Chigi Palace.
The coffered ceiling was reportedly purchased in Italian cardinal's palace.
The artist
James Wall Finn
James is a common English language surname and given name:
* James (name), the typically masculine first name James
* James (surname), various people with the last name James
James or James City may also refer to:
People
* King James (disambigua ...
painted coats-of-arms onto the ceiling based on Italian bookplates from Morgan's collection.
Finn's work was designed in such an authentic manner that it was frequently mistaken as part of the ceiling's original design.
231 Madison Avenue
Also part of the library grounds is 231 Madison Avenue, an Italianate brownstone house on the southeast corner of Madison Avenue and East 37th Street, which was the home of Isaac Newton Phelps and later J. P. "Jack" Morgan Jr.
The house contains the Morgan Shop on its northern side, facing 37th Street, and the Morgan Dining Room on its southern side.
The house is set behind a barricade composed of a wrought-iron fence atop a brownstone ledge. The house was originally three stories tall and faced with pink stone, but after R. H. Robertson's renovation of 1888, became four stories tall with a raised basement. An office annex to the east, built in 1957, was originally faced with brick.
Before the Morgan acquired it in 1988, it was a headquarters of the Lutheran Church.
The Madison Avenue facade consists of three vertical
bays. An entrance stoop with a balustrade is on the Madison Avenue side of the structure, extending to a portico in the central bay, which is supported by a pair of
Corinthian columns. On either side of the entrance doorway are rectangular sash windows, containing large sills with wrought-iron balustrades. The second and third stories each have three rectangular, multi-pane windows with sills atop
console brackets. A cornice runs above the third story. The attic contains small Ionic colonettes, as well as rounded pediments atop two of the bays.
Along 37th Street, the
water table
The water table is the upper surface of the zone of saturation. The zone of saturation is where the pores and fractures of the ground are saturated with water. It can also be simply explained as the depth below which the ground is saturated.
Th ...
containing the raised basement is topped by a molding. The original 1853 house to the west and the 1888 extension to the east are divided by a
pier
Seaside pleasure pier in England.html" ;"title="Brighton, England">Brighton, England. The first seaside piers were built in England in the early 19th century.
A pier is a raised structure that rises above a body of water and usually juts out ...
about halfway through the length of the facade, which spans the first through third stories. The original section of the house is three bays wide and contains window
articulation similar to that of the Madison Avenue facade. On the first floor, the second opening from west has a balcony with an iron balustrade and a pediment supported by Corinthian columns. On the original second floor, the second bay from west is flanked by oval windows on either side, while the third bay from west is an
oriel window
An oriel window is a form of bay window which protrudes from the main wall of a building but does not reach to the ground. Supported by corbels, brackets, or similar cantilevers, an oriel window is most commonly found projecting from an upper ...
. Within the 1888 extension, the first floor contains a projecting three-sided bay supported by pilasters and flanked by carved panels, as well as a blind arch opening to the east. The second floor of the extension contains paired window openings flanking a smaller triple window, while the third floor contains paired windows on either side of an oval window. The cornice above the third floor, as well as the attic, in both the original house and its extension is similar to that on Madison Avenue.
The southern facade of the house faces the rest of the library and is mostly obscured behind the 2006 addition. The westernmost portion of that facade, near Madison Avenue, contains rounded first- and second-story windows. There are also three-sided angled windows at the center of that facade.
Entrance building
The most recent addition to the library, completed in 2006, is a four-story, steel-and-glass entrance building designed by Renzo Piano and Beyer Blinder Belle.
The entrance building expanded the Morgan Library's area by .
The structure links McKim's library building, the annex, and the Phelps Stokes/Morgan house.
There are four galleries in this section of the museum: the Clare Eddy Thaw Gallery, the Morgan Stanley Galleries West and East, and the Engelhard Gallery.
The steel structural members are covered in rose-tinted paint as an allusion to the designs of main library and Phelps Stokes/Morgan house.
Although externally "bland", the building helps to organize the interior spaces of the complex.
The entrance building contains the JPMorgan Chase Lobby just inside the main entrance. On the lobby's north wall, stairs lead up to the Morgan Shop and Morgan Dining Room, and there is an admission counter and coat room. The south wall has a corridor to the Marble Hall and the Morgan Stanley Galleries West and East, as well as stairs to the Engelhard Gallery on the second floor. The east wall of the lobby has a stair to the lower level as well as elevators to both the Engelhard Gallery and the second level.
Gilbert Court, a covered courtyard at the center of the complex,
surrounds the entrance building on the north, east, and south.
On the south wall of the court is the Clare Eddy Thaw Gallery,
a space inspired by Renaissance chambers that Piano observed in Italy.
The facades of the new above-ground buildings contain pinkish steel-and-glass curtain walls, which were intended to recall the design of the earlier buildings.
At the court's southeast corner, stairs lead up to the original Morgan Library building, connecting to a vestibule between Morgan's study (the West Library) and the rotunda.
The building contains an auditorium about below street level, with 260
or 280 seats.
[ New storage rooms were also created by drilling into Manhattan's bedrock schist.]
Management
The scope of the collection was initially curated by Belle da Costa Greene, who had been J. P. Morgan's personal librarian when the private library had been founded in 1905. When the Pierpont Morgan Library became a public institution, she became the library's first director until her retirement in 1948. The library's second director, Frederick Baldwin Adams Jr.
Frederick Baldwin Adams Jr. (March 28, 1910 – January 7, 2001) was an American bibliophile and the director of the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York City from 1948 to 1969.
Early life
Adams was born in Greenwich, Connecticut, on March 28, 1 ...
, served until 1969, when he was succeeded by Charles Ryskamp. Ryskamp, the third director, resigned in 1987 and was replaced by Charles Eliot Pierce Jr.
Pierce served as the fourth director of the Pierpont Morgan Library until 2008, when he announced his intention to retire. The library's fifth director, William M. Griswold
William M. Griswold (February 7, 1823October 10, 1889) was an American lawyer, Republican politician, and Wisconsin pioneer. He served four years in the Wisconsin State Senate and three years in the State Assembly, representing Columbia County. ...
, served between 2008 and 2015, during which he oversaw the growth of its collections, exhibition programs, and curatorial departments. In 2015, the Morgan named Colin Bailey as its sixth director.
References
Notes
Citations
Sources
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External links
*
Virtual tour of the Morgan Library & Museum
provided by Google Arts & Culture
Google Arts & Culture (formerly Google Art Project) is an online platform of high-resolution images and videos of artworks and cultural artifacts from partner cultural organizations throughout the world.
It utilizes high-resolution image technol ...
*
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