It was time for our blissful days at The Farm to come to a close. My granddaughter Celia packed up the car with everything she will need for FIT this year, and we headed toward New York City.
We arrived at the Grayson Hotel near Bryant Park just in time for her to dress and meet her friend. They were headed to the Maisie Peters Concert at Radio City.
I took this opportunity to visit an old friend… The Morgan Library on 37th and Madison. When I worked for Cornell Capa in the 1970s, I passed the Library on my way home and often stopped in to see the exhibits. Recently, I read The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray and was just itching to be back in that building again. It did not disappoint.
The library was built by J.P. Morgan next to his Madison Avenue residence during the first decade of the 20th century. He was an avid collector of rare books and manuscripts and commissioned Charles McKim to design the building for him. After his death, J.P. Morgan’s son Jack, at the recommendation of Belle Da Costa Green, Morgan’s brilliant librarian, decided that the collection was too important to keep private. He donated The Morgan Library to the City of New York and it become a public institution, available to visitors and scholars alike. Over the following years, the Morgan Library continued to acquire books and manuscripts and expanded its physical campus. Since I had last visited, the garden had been replaced by a beautiful glass atrium to connect the various buildings of the campus.
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