Art Eyewitness Review: "Come Together" - Stories and Storytelling at the Morgan Library & Museum

 

Come Together: 3,000 Years of Stories and Storytelling

Morgan Library & Museum
 January 30 through May 3, 2026 

Reviewed by Ed Voves
Original photography by Anne Lloyd

Gather round, everyone! It's story time at the Morgan Library and Museum. Make yourselves comfortable because we have an amazing adventure to share.

 
In fact, the Morgan is serving-up three thousand years' worth of creation myths,  knights in shining armor, an impeccably-clad elephant and a little boy named Max who sails to the realm where "the Wild Things are."

Come Together at the Morgan traces the evolution of story-telling in human culture. 

Anne Lloyd, Photos (2026) 

A selection of works on view in the Come Together exhibit at the Morgan Library & Museum: a fragment of the Epic of Atrahasis., ca. 1646-1626 BC; Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales printed by William Caxton, ca. 1483; Charles Schultz’ “Peanuts” cartoon strip, September 8, 1973

From a cuneiform fragment relating to Atrahasis, a Noah-like figure from ancient Mesopotamia, to literary classics like The Canterbury Tales and beloved comic-strip characters, such is the scope of the Morgan exhibition.

If that sounds like a daunting task for the Morgan's curators to achieve, well it is. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) 

Gallery view of the Come Together: 3000 Years of Stories and Storytelling exhibition at the Morgan Library & Museum

Not to worry. The Morgan curators are more than equal to this challenge.

Come Together is a thoroughly absorbing survey of the creative responses to humanity's insatiable need to speak - and hear - for itself. Arranged in five thematic sections, 140 works of art and literature chart the course of storytelling across the ages. 

Almost all of the artifacts in the exhibition are from the Morgan's own collection. One notable exception, however, appears at the very beginning of the exhibit, a Native American mask on loan from the American Museum of Natural History. 

Kwakiutl Raven Mask, attributed to Bob Harris , ca. 1900,

 from the collection of the American Museum of Natural History

Ironically, the story that this remarkable mask helps to illustrate involves one of the most dramatic episodes in the Morgan Library's own history. The raven-head mask complements historic photographs and an early film of Native Americans created by Edward Curtis.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) 

Edward Curtis photo of Kwakwaka´wakw Dancers, 1914

Edward Curtis (1868-1952), a self-taught artist of genius, started taking photographs of Native Americans living in the vicinity of Seattle, Washington. At first this was a side-line to his thriving photo portrait studio. Soon Curtis' growing obsession consumed his business, his marriage, eventually his life. 

With few remaining resources of his own, financial support from J.P. Morgan enabled Curtis to continue documenting Native American culture across the vast expanse of the U.S. and Canada. By the time he finished his quest, Curtis had taken 40,000 photos! Of these, 2,234 were published in his multi-volume masterpiece, The North American Indian.

Curtis, the son of a frontier settler of the Old West, might well have formed a very different opinion of the Native Americans he encountered. Curtis could have despised "the vanishing Red Man" as so many of his generation did. But his  empathy for them is an important point to consider. 

Many times, people we would least expect - strangers, competitors, even adversaries - play an important role in appreciating and preserving the art, literature and folk lore of cultures very different from their own.

A notable example of this can be found in the first section of Coming Together, "Belief and Belonging." This is an ancient bronze container known as a Praenestine Cista. It was found in a burial chamber near the city of Praeneste, today's Palestrina, twenty miles south of Rome.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) 

Praenestine Cista with Cover, Italy, ca. 200 BC

Praeneste was a stronghold of the Etruscans, who frequently fought settlers from Greece for control of the rich agricultural lands of southern Italy. Despite this "bone of contention", the Etruscans admired Greek culture. Many of the Greek vases and ceramic vessels now on display in art museums around the world were unearthed from Etruscan tombs, as was this Praenestine Cista.  

The Etruscans were master metal workers, so the Praenestine Cista was almost certainly a work of their hands. Yet, it is engraved with images of Greek goddesses, perhaps a scene from the Trojan War.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, to be inspired by the art and ideals of a rival culture is a far greater tribute.

Creative inspiration and the challenge of translating ideas into word and image are the theme of the next two sections of Come Together. "Shaping Stories" and "Picture This" provide the setting for studying several modern-day classics in detail. 

Two of these displays, dealing with Jean de Brunhoff's Histoire de Babar, le petit elephant (1931) and the storyboard of the 1979 theatrical production of Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are (1963) stand-out as surefire crowd-pleasers. The "back-stories" of Babar and Wild Things also yield fascinating insights into the childhood (or childlike) sources of creativity. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) 

Preparatory artwork by Jean de Brunhoff for Histoire de Babar, le petit elephant, 1931. From top (left) Study for Text and Illustrations;

 Color Study for the Character of Babar; Dummy for p. 15

Babar's saga began with an impromptu bed-time story told by the wife of French illustrator, Jean de Brunhoff (1899-1937). Next day, the two young boys implored their father to create pictures of the orphan elephant. De Brunhoff set to work and Babar sprang to life in a series of wildly popular books. 

Tragically, de Brunhoff died from TB in 1937. Years later, one of his sons, Laurent (1925-2024), an accomplished artist, continued in his father's (and mother's) footsteps. By 2017, the Babar books totaled 44 in number, along with an animated TV series and endless merchandising spin-offs.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) 

Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are - an image from the 1979 storyboard for the operatic version of the 1963 book.

In the case of Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak had to share the credits with a hyper-imaginative girl named Rosie who lived across the street from his boyhood home in Brooklyn. 

Back in the 1990's, I had the honor to interview Sendak for the Philadelphia Daily News. He related how, as a boy, illness often confined him to watching neighborhood children at play. One of them, Rosie, was the "author/director" and star of skits acted-out on the sidewalk and door stoops. 

What Sendak saw was childhood imagination at play - and at work. This is quite different from what adults often conceive it to be. Children's insights are deep and nuanced, seldom of the degree of innocence which their elders believe. These observations informed Sendak's lifelong approach to life and art.

Anne, Photo (2026) 

Maurice Sendak's 1979 storyboard 

for the operatic version of Where the Wild Things Are

The art works related to Where the Wild Things Are on view in Come Together were part of the 1980 operatic version of Max's adventures. For Sendak, this transition to the stage proved to be a very challenging endeavor. The first presentation was beset with a host of difficulties, though it was later revived successfully.

Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are has become an enduring work of art and literature, unifying people of different generations, races and social classes. It is part of the American canon. But it has to be wondered at, if any book, film or work of art of a more recent vintage can ever succeed to a similar degree.

Back in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries- and well into the twentieth -  a new novel by a major author like Charles Dickens or Mark Twain was a cause for celebration. The same was true for plays, operas and, later, films which appealed to a shared set of beliefs or a sense of humor.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) 

A sequence of film frames from Charlie Chaplin's The Kid (1921)

A brilliant example of such mass appeal is Charlie Chaplin's The Kid (1921). This silent classic is presented in a continuous video loop in the exhibition galleries. We were so transfixed by The Little Tramp's attempt at parenting, that we lost track of time and then had to make a dash for the train!

Talk about the power of storytelling! 

Today, efforts to "frame a narrative" are much more difficult. Individualism has upstaged social cohesion. This is not a bad thing in itself. But trying to perceive cultural trends is increasingly problematic.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) 

Gallery view of the Come Together exhibition.

 A 1980 drawing by Keith Haring appears at center.

The modern-day focus on personal expression supplies the theme of the final galleries of Come Together. There is a very diverse array of works on display. The Morgan curators attempted to supply something of a framework by casting many of these as "New York Stories."

Perhaps the best way to approach such diversity is to let these "personal" stories speak for themselves. Let our minds engage with the message of each and then wait to see if universal themes emerge.

That is what impressed me, in the case of The Book of Hours. This "wordless novel" by George A. Walker consists of 99 wood engravings depicting the hours leading up to the horrifying 9/11/01 attack on the World Trade Center. No text, just images.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) 

Artist’s proof of a hand-printed wood engraving for

 George A. Walker’s The Book of Hours, 2008

Walker's The Book of Hours is a study of normal daily life, the routine of people going about their business on a September morning in 2001, no different than any other September morning...

 

And then, at 9:02 am, the World changed. A senseless tragedy ensued, followed by events, wars and rumors of wars, which are still in progress, all these years later.

There is no ending, no final frame, no moral lessons to be derived from The Book of Hours. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026)

Study of Robert Browning Reading by William Wetmore Story, 1869 

That is really true of all great stories, whatever medium is used. The writer may stop writing, the artist ceases to paint or draw, words no longer flow from the storyteller's lips. 

The conclusion of the story - and the conclusions to be drawn from it - that's where we come in. 

What comes next, in our own personal story or the cosmic drama in which we all play our part? That is up to us.

***

Text: Copyright of Ed Voves, all rights reserved                                               

Original photography, copyright of Anne Lloyd

Introductory image: Anne Lloyd, (Photo 2026) Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are - an image from the 1979 storyboard for the operatic version of the 1963 book. (See full storyboard image, below) 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) A fragment of the Epic of Atrahasis., ca. 1646-1626 BC, First Dynasty of Babylon, Reign of King Ammi-saduqa. Clay The Morgan Library & Museum, MLC 1889; Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales printed by William Caxton, ca. 1483. Morgan Library & Museum MA 6304.8.4; Charles Schultz’ “Peanuts” cartoon strip, September 8, 1973. Pen and black ink, black felt pen and white paint on illustration board. Four panel strip: 6 7 x 30 inches (175 x 762 mm) Morgan Library & Museum #1973.49

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) Gallery view of the Come Together: 3000 Years of Stories and Storytelling exhibition at the Morgan Library & Museum. 

                                                                                 

Kwakiutl Raven Mask attributed to Bob Harris Collected in 1901 by George Hunt in Tsaxis/Fort Rupert, British Columbia, Canada American Museum of Natural History, Cat. No 16/8533 Accession 1901-32

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) Edward S. Curtis’ Photo of Kwakwaka´wakw Dancers with Hamatsa Masks, 1914. Published in The North American. Cambridge, U.S.A. The University Press, 1907-1930, Vol 10. Plate 336. PML 20032.2

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) Praenestine Cista with Cover, Italy, ca. 200 B.C Bronze, with incised surface decoration. Height (with lid) 14 ¼ inches (358 mm) Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan, 1907. AZ046a-b

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) Preparatory artwork by Jean de Brunhoff for Histoire de Babar, le petit elephant, 1931. Study for text and illustrations, 1931. 13 x 9 ¾ in. (32.8 x 24.7 cm) Morgan Library & Museum MA 6304.4.01; Color study for the character of Babar, 1931. 14 3/8 x 10 ½ in (36.5 x 26.7 cm) Morgan Library & Museum MA 6304.8.4;Dummy for p. 15: 14 1/8 x 10 3/8 in. (36 x 26.5 cm) Morgan Library & Museum MA 6304.10.10 (recto)

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are - an image from the 1979 storyboard for the operatic version of the 1963 book. Morgan Library and Museum

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) Maurice Sendak's  Storyboard (Where the Wild Things Are,1979). Watercolor, pen and ink and graphite pencil on paper. © The Maurice Sendak Foundation, 2013. Morgan Library and Museum 2013.72ab

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) A Sequence of Film Frames from Charlie Chaplin's The Kid, 1921. Running time: 68 minutes. Distributed by First National Pictures.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) Gallery view of the Morgan Library & Museum exhibition, Come Together: 3000 years of Stories and Storytelling. A 1980 drawing by Keith Haring appears at center.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) Artist’s proof of a hand-printed wood engraving for George A. Walkers The Book of Hours, a Wordless Novel / Told in 99 Wood Engravings, 2008. Morgan Library and Museum. PML 195745.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) Studies of Robert Browning Reading by William Wetmore Story, 1869. Pencil on cream colored paper, laid down: 9 5/8 x 14 11/16 inches (245 x 374 mm) Morgan Library and Museum. #1954.5