Bequeathing the Bookman's Paradise

After Morgan died in Rome in 1913, his body was transported to New York and laid out in his Library. The casket was carried out to a horse-drawn hearse, which proceeded south to St. George’s Episcopal Church on 16th Street, where Morgan had been an active parishioner. On the day of his funeral, the New York Stock Exchange remained quiet until noon.

J. P. Morgan Jr. inherited his father’s Library. In 1924—with Greene’s strong encouragement—he turned it over to a board of trustees, which appointed her the inaugural director of the newly incorporated Pierpont Morgan Library (now known as the Morgan Library & Museum).