Louisa and Herbert Satterlee (Morgan’s daughter and son-in-law) sailed to England in summer 1902 to join Morgan for the coronation of Edward VII. They brought along McKim’s first designs for the Library. In this letter, Satterlee conveyed Morgan’s response to McKim: “They did not prove to be just what he wanted.”
Satterlee outlined Morgan’s wishes but reassured McKim: “I have formulated his objections with brutal brevity & ought to say that he liked the dignity of your building & its purity of design.” McKim went back to the drawing board, and by the end of the summer he had completed a design that Morgan embraced.
Herbert Livingston Satterlee (1863–1947)
Letter to Charles Follen McKim, Aldenham Abbey, Watford, Hertfordshire, England, 29 July 1902, page 2
New-York Historical Society, McKim, Mead & White Architectural Collection