A Tale of Two Libraries
The Morgan Library & Museum and the Library of the National Gallery
The library in the East Building of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
What better way to spend a rainy day than in a library surrounded by books? I’m not referring to your personal library, as relaxing as that may be. Fortunately, collections of books, prints, drawings & other works on paper built around individual passions are often open to the general public. Many of these libraries are part of museums and are as beautiful as the treasures they contain. And while scholars may need to make an appointment to examine specific volumes – say, a rare Gutenberg Bible – most of us are happy to spend our time wandering exhibitions highlighting gems from the collection, or meeting a friend for coffee in the café.
I.M. Pei’s design of the East Building of the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. is one of the architect’s most important works. The centerpiece of the building, the Atrium, is stunning -- with its cream-colored Tennessee marble walls and giant Alexander Calder mobile hanging from a glass ceiling. But tucked discreetly behind the stairs at the Ground level is a passage leading to the National Gallery of Art Library, an equally dramatic space and open to the public. It houses one of the largest collections of art books in the United States.
“What better way to spend a rainy day than in a library surrounded by books?”
Close-up of the stacks at the Morgan Library, New York City.
Reading Room at the Library of the National Gallery, Washington, D.C.
After checking in, visitors step down into the seven-storied main room resembling a modernist cathedral to literature. Shafts of light cut through two massive vertical windows opposite each other and onto a seating arrangement of Barcelona chairs. To the left stretches a long, low bookcase containing an extensive collection of exhibition catalogs you can pick up and look through. In front of the bookcase are computer tables lined up like church pews. Behind it is a ramp where the special exhibition cases are located. The librarian’s desk is at the opposite end of the room, set on a landing four steps up, looking so much like an altar that it can’t be coincidental.
“If the library at the National Gallery is a cathedral, then the Morgan Library is a jewel box created for one man’s literary treasures.”
This is a “closed stacks” library: Volumes are not loaned out and cannot be removed from the premises. Visiting scholars must request titles from the librarians. The books are shelved on the sweeping balconies overhead and three floors underground. The library contains over 500,000 volumes, including over 12,000 printed before 1700 and classified as “rare.” Most of the collection is digitized.
The Tudor home of Susan Owens and Stephen Calloways, Suffolk. Photo by Christopher Horwood.
Two hundred twenty-eight miles away, and on the opposite end of the architectural spectrum, is The Morgan Library & Museum in New York City. Completed in 1906, only seven years before Pierpont Morgan’s death, the library was designed by Charles Follen McKim for the 19th-century American Financier and Investment Banker’s private collection of rare books and manuscripts. McKim was a partner in the architectural firm McKim, Mead & White, whose projects included New York’s Penn Station (razed in 1963 and replaced by Madison Square Garden) and the National Museum of American History (located only a few doors down from the National Gallery of Art). Built adjacent to the former Morgan residence on Madison Avenue, The Morgan Library & Museum’s extraordinary collection includes an astounding amount of rarities: illuminated medieval manuscripts, original John Tenniel pencil drawings for Lewis Carroll’s Alice In Wonderland, Rembrandt prints, the journal of Henry David Thoreau, a 15th-century edition of Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur, letters written by Van Gogh (to Gauguin), the picture letters of Beatrix Potter, just to name a few.
If the library at the National Gallery is a cathedral, then the Morgan Library is a jewel box created for one man’s literary treasures. The Rotunda, which acts as the central foyer/hub of the building, is based on Italian Renaissance villas and the Vatican gardens. There are veined marble floors, columns, and paneled walls. The dome ceiling is painted in the classical style, depicting the literary periods that Morgan collected: the ancient world, the Middle Ages & the Renaissance. The apse (a semicircular niche common in cathedrals) and doorways are decorated with stucco and ceramic reliefs. A circular skylight sits in the center of the dome. It is a beautiful example of the classical style of architecture popularized by McKim, Mead & White.
The East Room, Mr. Morgan’s Library, contains a thirty-foot-high painted ceiling and three stories of inlaid walnut bookcases. Cabinet doors with ornate metal screens protect the books without obstructing visitors’ views of the spines. A 16th-century tapestry hangs above a massive stone fireplace. The volumes located on the two balconies are accessed via two hidden staircases. This sumptuous space occupies a surprisingly small and cozy footprint.
In addition to the library, the Rotunda leads to Pierpont Morgan’s private study and the librarian’s office, which Bella de Costa Greene used. Greene was Morgan’s private librarian and was responsible for acquiring many of the volumes in the collection. After Morgan’s death, Greene became the institution’s first director. Her life and legacy are the subject of a 2007 biography by Heidi Ardizzone, An Illuminated Life: Bella de Costa Greene’s Journey from Prejudice to Privilege, and an upcoming exhibit at The Morgan, which opens in October 2024.
If you find yourself in New York City or D.C. in the upcoming months or D.C., these spectacular libraries are worth visiting, whether for inspiration regarding your own collection or simply for love of books.
Tara Cheesman is a freelance book critic and a National Book Critics Circle member. Her work has appeared in The Los Angeles Review of Books, CrimeReads, Guernica, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, The Mystery Tribune and other online publications. She received her Bachelors of Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts in New York City.