There are no records of Warren’s discussions with Morgan about the program for the new Library, but this drawing suggests that Warren and Charles Follen McKim received similar instructions. Both Warren’s unbuilt design and McKim’s realized plan include a central rotunda, a grand library space, and two smaller offices. Though Warren’s drawings reference a “Library-Museum,” Morgan ultimately clarified that his new building would most emphatically be a library rather than a “picture gallery.”
Whitney Warren (1864–1943)
For J. P. Morgan Esq. / Sketch Plan for Library Museum, before March 1902
Graphite, pen and black ink, blue and yellow watercolor, and red and green crayon
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, Gift of Mrs. William Greenough; 1943-51-334
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum / Art Resource, NY