“The ancient librarian is always pictured as having a gray beard and as wearing a skull cap. But here is one with a vivacious laugh, with brown eyes and rosy cheeks, who speaks delectable French, and who picks up a musty tome as gracefully as a butterfly alights on a dusty leaf.” These were the words that the New York Times used in 1912 to describe Belle da Costa Greene, the personal librarian of J.P. Morgan and, later, the first director of the Morgan Library.
The Morgan Library & Museum celebrates its centenary this year, and the museum is using this occasion to highlight the career of its unconventional inaugural director. She was a vivacious young woman whose work was integral to the institution’s founding and flourishing. The major exhibition currently gracing the gilded halls of the museum tells the story of Greene’s life and work.
