This drawing reflects the final design for the central portion of the Library’s façade, down to the details of the bronze relief panels affixed to the grand front doors. The lionesses flanking the steps would be sculpted by Edward Clark Potter.
In early designs, the dedicatory panel on the cornice, borne by a pair of winged figures, resembled an open book, but the architects revised the shape to a simple rectangle. Several early renderings show placeholder text on both the dedicatory panel and the plaque over the doors, but in the end those areas remained unlettered.
McKim, Mead & White (drafter unknown)
Detail of Loggia, Library for J. P. Morgan Esq. N.Y.C., ca. 1904
Ink on linen
New-York Historical Society, McKim, Mead & White Architectural Collection