When he was a boy growing up in New England, J. Pierpont Morgan began collecting autographs of famous men— a popular pastime of the day. Before he turned fifty, he commissioned a catalogue of his growing personal library, which now encompassed much more than autographs. But it was only after he turned sixty that he started making purchases on a prodigious scale. By the time of his death in 1913 at age seventy-five, he was one of the world’s elite collectors of rare books and manuscripts.
What allowed Morgan to create such a magnificent library? He benefited from economic privilege and astute family guidance. As a young man, he studied in Switzerland and Germany before returning to New York to embark upon his financial career. His father and nephew, both named Junius and both committed bibliophiles, introduced him to the practice of acquiring books as treasured objects more so than as texts for reading. Thus equipped, Morgan amassed the collection that would fill his “bookman’s paradise.”
J. Pierpont Morgan, ca. 1860s. Photo: Disdéri & Co., Paris.