Listen to actor Andi Bohs read a passage from a Belle Greene letter describing her aspirations for the Morgan Library, as well as co-curators Erica Ciallela and Philip Palmer summarizing the many accomplishments Greene achieved as director.
A NEW ERA
With the transformation of Morgan’s private collection into a public educational institution, it was now Greene’s responsibility to serve a community outside of the Morgan family. The institution was established as a “public library, for reference only . . . for the use and benefit . . . of all persons whomsoever, subject only to suitable rules and regulations.”
Greene’s appointment is recorded in this beautifully handwritten book with the board’s meeting minutes, which also indicate that Ada Thurston, Greene’s first hire, would stay on as the “Keeper of Printed Books.” Jack Morgan served as the inaugural board president.
Minutes of the Pierpont Morgan Library Board of Trustees, 1924
The Morgan Library & Museum; ARC 3294, Box 1425, v. 1
ANDI: If I can make a big institution out of it – it will be all that I or anyone else can expect – I shall start in just as soon as this inventory business is over – to see what I can do to make it a dernier ressort for scholars in certain fields, to make our material available to them and to make them welcome here.
ERICA: In 1924 Belle Greene’s wish came to fruition and the private library of Pierpont and Jack Morgan became the Pierpont Morgan Library. Greene was appointed its first director. In this section, you will see many facets of Greene’s work as librarian and director: her commitment to education and special collections teaching, her blockbuster exhibitions, her support of publication projects and research, her interest in preservation techniques, her remarkable acquisitions, and her dedication to collection access.
When the Morgan began mounting major exhibitions and opening its doors to researchers in the 1920s, newspaper accounts remarked on the important dual mission of the institution to serve both scholars and the public, as in the following anecdote:
PHILIP: It is difficult to say which will be the greater usefulness traceable to Mr. Morgan’s gift, the work done by specialists in the original Morgan library, or the pleasure and instruction derived by much larger audiences from popular exhibitions of the Morgan Library’s resources, of which we trust the present is only the first.