In early 1904, two years after Morgan had commissioned the Library, McKim and his partner William Rutherford Mead were finally ready to present the interior designs. “The proposition we desire to submit for your consideration,” McKim wrote to his client, “is the result of months of study, & I trust in its general policy will commend itself as dignified and appropriate to the purposes of a library.”
William Mitchell Kendall, one of the architects working on the project with McKim, created this elevation of the Rotunda, or “main hall.” He began to articulate the decorative details that would ultimately distinguish the completed space.
William Mitchell Kendall (1856–1941) for McKim, Mead & White North Elevation, Main Hall, Library for J. P. Morgan Esq., 11 February 1904 Ink on linen New-York Historical Society, McKim, Mead & White Architectural Collection