Morgan Library

Say what you will about the great financier, monopolist, and strategist of the Gilded Age, he had a degree in art history, was among the founders and major contributors to the Met, and was, by all accounts, a man of learning and reflection, motivated not merely by greed alone. He collected books as well as art, and his library on Madison at 36th St. is a must-see for librarians, retired librarians, and lovers of books, libraries, and librarians. We visited on October 11th.

The library complex is an annex to the mansion next door

Entry hall, mostly European Renaissance paintings 

Book of Hours, 1460, by the Master of Jean Rollin II...a successor
of van Eyck?

A Memling, late 15th

In a sort of transition hall between the entry and the main
vault...Morgan's is not a rags to riches story...he was born
to great privilege, educated mostly in Europe, and spent
months of nearly every year abroad

He knew what great European art looked like (having

bought a good bit of it...)

Mask of GW

Panning around the main vault

Nice tapisserie

Oh yes, the books...here's a 1455 Gutenberg Bible...the Morgan has
three copies of the known 50 to have survived from that first run of
160...

Original manuscript of Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire, 1912

More books; no, they're not really organized by color

For toasty evenings in the city

The Lindau Gospels...Carolingian...c. 880...hard to say
whether the book or its binding is more impressive...or
priceless...

Another Carolingian specimen, a Gospel Book, from Tours, 9th century

St. Elizabeth Holding a Book, painted and gilded Lindenwood,
Germany, late 16th

The Old Book of the Founding of Cuzco, 1530s manuscript, here
including the signatures of some thirty of the Conquistadores, including
Pizzarro's brother

Reliquary shrine, Byzantine, 12th; originally contained fragments
of the True Cross, the True Tomb, the True Whatever, etc.

Moving right along, now in a separate part of the large
annex, more displays, art as well as library items...
here, specimens of very early Mesopotamian writing

A Donor Presenting a Mummified Osirus (so it said), 
26th dynasty...

Black Sea jewelry, late Roman period

Disc brooch, gold etc., c. 150BC

Our Founder

Belle da Costa Greene, Morgan's librarian, the woman who developed
and managed the place...quite a story on her own...as told in The 
Personal Librarian...a woman of color, passing....

Helpful older model of the complex, the library on the right

Looking down on the now-enclosed are between the mansion and
library; the gift shoppe was one of the better ones, too