Listen to co-curator Erica Ciallela discuss Belle Greene’s office furniture, as well as the actor Andi Bohs and co-curator Philip Palmer reading passages from correspondence between Greene and the London manufacturer who made the Library’s furniture.
Desk and swivel chair used by Belle da Costa Greene, 1906–7
The Morgan Library & Museum
ERICA: Belle Greene used this furniture in the Library’s North Office. It was from this desk that she oversaw the daily task of running the library and met with the many friends and professional colleagues she made throughout her career. The card catalogue cabinet, custom swivel chair, and desk were built by the London furniture manufacturer Bernard Cowtan & Sons. Correspondence with Cowtan survives in the Morgan’s Archives and documents the various details that Belle Greene wanted for her desk, as can be heard in the following exchange:
ANDI: Did I ask you to make a compartment on one of the drawers of my (personal) desk for holding a bunch of the catalogue cards? I enclose one for size. Also, could I have a sort of ‘box’ compartment for keeping money used in the ‘petty’ expenses of the library, and a place for stamps, etc. I hate to be such a nuisance but you spoiled me by saying I could have anything I liked.
PHILIP: It is no trouble at all to arrange the drawers in your own writing table to take a bunch of the catalogue cards, and one of the drawers to be devoted for the money and keys, with a place for the stamps, and we will space out the drawers accordingly; and I am not unmindful of the secret opening arrangement which we have spoken about.