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

Art Eyewitness Essay: Morgan Library & Museum Centennial Tribute

  

     

 Art Eyewitness Essay:
Morgan Library and Museum Centennial Tribute

By Ed Voves

Original Photography by Anne Lloyd and Ed Voves

"Life is a spell so exquisite,” Emily Dickinson wrote, “that everything conspires to break it.”

If Dickinson’s hometown of Amherst, Massachusetts, was hostile to enchantment, how much so is the “24/7” tidal wave of distractions which daily engulfs our lives? Wherever one lives in our harried, mind-fatigued world, the “spell” of a meaningful life is difficult to cultivate.

Yet, it is possible to find places of refuge – mental, emotional, life-affirming. Occasionally, these sanctuaries of sanity may be found in the middle of the maelstrom. 225 Madison Avenue at 36^th street in New York City is one such location:

The Morgan Library & Museum.

Brett Beyer (Photo 2022)

 J.P Morgan’s Library & Garden, looking west toward the Annex

The Morgan, if I may, is celebrating its centennial year as a public institution. But the Morgan Library and Museum’s pre-history, spanning two decades before its incorporation in 1924, is of crucial importance in understanding the Morgan’s mission as a premier American venue of culture.

The Morgan was designed as a private library by the celebrated architect, Charles McKim, and built between 1902 and 1906. Set amid brownstone townhouses in the Murray Hill neighborhood of New York, the Morgan Library was constructed of Tennessee marble. From its inception, the Morgan was intended to be exceptional.

At McKim’s behest, the emplacement of the marble exterior stonework was done without the use of mortar. This exacting procedure would make the Morgan “the only building ever built in modern times as the ancients built and will require, as was required of them, the utmost accuracy and nicety known in mechanics.”

 

  J. P. Morgan’a Library & Garden with sculptures of lionesses by Edward Clark Potter (photo by Henry Wysham Lanier),1906. Brett Beyer (2022) Entrance to J. P. Morgan’a Library, evening view

McKim modeled the entrance area of the Morgan after the Villa Medici, a Renaissance palazzo from the 1500’s. As the patron of McKim’s masterpiece was an American “Medici”, the building was designed to match the man.

J. Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) was a hugely controversial figure of his time – and since. He was praised by some and vilified by others for his financial transactions. The prompt action he took in 1893 – and later in 1907 - to prevent a bank panic from spiraling into a nation-wide depression was both public-spirited and sound business practice.

Hayman Selig Mendelssohn, J. Pierpont Morgan, c. 1890

The private library which McKim built for Morgan, adjacent to his family residence, was to be Morgan’s refuge from the harsh world of Gilded Age finance. An avid reader since childhood, Morgan could retreat into the spell of an “exquisite life.” His version of Dickinson’s dream state was a place of eternal verities and timeless ideals, in a setting of commensurate grandeur.

Ed Voves (Photos 2023) Gallery views of Pierpont Morgan's Library

One commentator, upon being given a tour of the completed Morgan Library in 1907, described it as “the bookman’s paradise.”

 

Ed Voves (Photo 2023)

 Gallery view of the Rotunda of the Morgan Library and Museum

Morgan was indeed a “bookman.” He treasured the manuscript of a Sir Walter Scott novel which his father, a collector of autographs, had purchased. When the senior Morgan died in 1890, Pierpont (as he was known in his family) followed his father’s lead as a collector. But he did not limit himself to individual volumes and manuscripts. Morgan began to purchase entire collections, sometimes numbering a hundred or more volumes at a time.

 

Udo J. Keppler, The Magnet, 1911. Published in Puck Magazine

Masterpieces of ancient and medieval art complemented these book acquisitions. European connoisseurs were enraged to see treasures like the Lindau Gospels lost to Morgan’s clutches. Such was the power of the “almighty dollar” and the astute advice of his bibliophile nephew, Junius, that Morgan was an unstoppable force.

Ed Voves (Photo 2023)  

The Lindau Gospels, c. 880, manuscript from St. Gall, Switzerland

To a significant degree, Morgan's book collecting was motivated by his religious faith. This led him to buy rare and historic bibles like the famed Gutenberg Bible (the Morgan now has three copies) and Coptic biblical codices, inscribed by hand in Egypt during the early Middle Ages. The fascinating interaction of worshiping God and obsession with books was documented in the exhibition, Morgan's Bibles: Splendor in Scripture (October 2023-January 2024).

Ed Voves (Photos 2023) Johan Gutenberg’s Biblia Latina, c. 1455 (top photo); Samuel 1 & 2 in Coptic, before 893. From Egypt, Al-Fayyum 

Closer to home, Morgan made his earliest headline-grabbing purchase in 1879. Dubbed the "Thousand-Dollar Bible" by the New York Times, this was the first bible printed in America, dating  to 1663. John Eliot's translation of the Old and New Testament into the language of Algonquian Native American people was also featured in Morgan's Bibles.

J.P. Morgan died on March 31, 1913 in Rome. With his passing, care for the “bookman’s paradise” entered into the capable hands of J.P. (Jack) Morgan Jr. and the now legendary librarian, Belle da Costa Greene (1883-1950). Greene was an African-American woman who "passed" as a person of Portuguese descent. Greene's sharp eye at detecting fakes and forgeries was invaluable in maintaining the integrity of the Morgan's collection.

Ed Voves (Photo 2023)  

Gallery view of the Morgan Library, East Room, showing terracotta bust of Belle da Costa Greene, by Jo Davidson

To round off its centennial celebrations, the Morgan has just opened an exhibition devoted to Belle Greene. Many of the outstanding manuscripts and books purchased on the advice of Greene are on display. Art Eyewitness will review Belle da Costa Greene: A Librarian's Legacy in a future post.

In 1924, Jack Morgan decided to recast the Morgan as a public research institution, eventually as a museum as well. In this essay, we shall focus on the Morgan as a museum.

The Morgan is a unique institution, functioning – quite successfully - for many years without large galleries for long-term display of its collection. Approximately 7,000 works of art were donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, of which Morgan was president at the time of his death. These included masterpiece paintings like Raphael's Colonna Alterpiece.

Morgan's vast collection of "works on paper"  - medieval manuscripts, Rembrandt etchings and original musical scores such as Beethoven''s Violin and Piano Sonata, op. 96 in G major -  were retained under the careful guardianship of Belle Greene. 

William Blake, America, a Prophecy, 1793-95

Incredibly, works by William Blake, with their prophetic religious visions and radical political views, also remained in the Morgan collection. One would never have assumed that a "robber baron" like J.P. Morgan would have held Blake in esteem, yet apparently he did.

Today, most of the Morgan's 350,000 collection items remain in storage for significant periods. This is due to conservation requirements, as well as space restrictions. To deal with the latter concern, major renovations of the Morgan campus in 1991 and 2006 added additional room,. Especially worthy of note is a more spacious second floor display area, the Englehard Gallery. 

Ed Voves (Photo 2023)  

 The Englehard Gallery, during the Medieval Money exhibit 

However, the Morgan curators must still make optimum use of small spaces by comparison with the cavernous galleries of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Anne Lloyd (Photo 2017)

 Exhibition banners, Summer 2017, at the Morgan Library & Museum

Special exhibitions and rotating “treasures from the vault" are key to the Morgan’s presentation of its vast and varied collections. Generous loans from major museums from around the world are also a major feature of the Morgan’s mission of addressing epic themes in art, music and literature.

The opulent decor of “Mr. Morgan’s Library” never changes. Everything else is in a state of creative flux. As a result, the Morgan's revolving exhibition schedule enables us to step-out of the pressures and frustrations of “this moment” into realms of the imagination, past, present and future.

                  

Anne Lloyd (Photo 2024) 

 The Beatrix Potter: Drawn to Nature Exhibition,

 with display of illustrated letters to Noel Moore, 1890's  

               

Many of the Morgan exhibitions are immensely enjoyable. The 2012 Charles Dickens tribute, 2019’s Drawing the Curtain: Maurice Sendak’s Design for Opera and Ballet and this year’s Beatrix Potter: Drawn from Nature occupy an especially memorable place in my regard for the Morgan.

The wonderful exhibitions at the Morgan, superb articulations of word and image, have all left their mark on me. To conclude this tribute, I will focus on a sequence of three exhibitions from 2016-2017 and an earlier one, which was mounted in 1971.

This 70's exhibition occurred before I began visiting the Morgan. But judging from its impact, the display of photos of Native Americans taken by Edward S. Curtis from the 1890’s to 1930 was a landmark event in American museum history – and America’s cultural history, writ large.

Edward S. Curtis, Self-Portrait, 1905

In 1906, Edward Curtis (1868-1952), a self-taught photographer based in Seattle, Washington, approached J.P. Morgan for financial support to enable him to document the endangered culture of the North American Indians. Construction of “Mr. Morgan’s Library” was in its final stages and Morgan gave Curtis the brush-off. Or tried to.

Curtis would not take no for an answer. He thrust several or his portraits of Native-American people from the south-west territories into Morgan’s hands. The aging titan of Wall Street was intrigued. 

Edward S. Curtis, Native American Portraits from lantern slides: Unidentified girl (A:shiwi/Zuni), at left, c. 1903;

 Luzi (Tohono O’odham/Papago), c. 1906 

Curtis received a generous, if not lavish, stipend, paid in installments. Morgan provided $15,000 per year for five years, to be spent on field work, but not publication costs.The funding from Morgan enabled Curtis to continue with his ever-expanding project - photographs for his multi-volume book, The North American Indian, ethnographic study of social customs and religious practices and production of sound and motion picture recordings. It was a stupendous achievement.  

Edward Curtis had, at great personal cost, saved America’s Native American heritage. But, by the time he finished his epic task, the  U.S. was in the grip of the Great Depression. Few of the expensive book sets were sold. Curtis died in obscurity in 1952.

Edward S. Curtis, The Courier (Apache), c. 1906. Lantern slide

Carefully stored in the Morgan’s vault were over 400 lantern slides of Curtis photos which had been used by the intrepid photographer in his public-speaking tours. Many had been hand-tinted to heighten their visual appeal to the public. The lantern slides formed the core of the sensational 1971 exhibition at the Morgan which revived Curtis' reputation and heightened awareness of the rich heritage of the Native American peoples Curtis had  immortalized.

The  Curtis/Morgan saga is surely one of the most dramatic and influential episodes involving a museum in American history. That being said, I would contend that three exhibitions, presented by the Morgan during 2016-2017, should be considered as a benchmark achievement in curatorial excellence. 

Over the twelve-month course of a single year, the Morgan mounted back-to-back-to-back exhibitions surveying the lives and times of three giants of mid-19th century literature: 

·      Charlotte Brontë: An Independent Will (September 2016–January 2017)

·      I’m Nobody! Who are you? Life & Poetry of Emily Dickinson (Jan- May 2017)

·      This Ever New Self: Thoreau and His Journal (June–September 2017)

Art Eyewitness Image 

From left- Charlotte Brontë, Emily Dickinson & Henry David Thoreau

The Morgan exhibitions generated an extraordinary confluence of genius, as if these three very different writers had joined forces, each using their own singular talent to address the issues of their day and the challenges facing human beings in every era.

In preparing these exhibitions, the Morgan curators searched through the Morgan's considerable holdings of material related to Charlotte Brontë, Emily Dickinson and Henry David Thoreau and augmented these with loan items from all over the world. 

Anne Lloyd (Photo 2016)

 Charlotte Brontë’s portable writing desk

For Brontë, and Thoreau, the results of this research were dazzling. Charlotte Brontë's portable writing desk, a dress she wore on a visit to London where she met William Makepeace Thackeray, tiny hand-written story books made for her youngest sister, Anne, and much more testified to the almost religious devotion which the author of Jane Eyre has inspired.

The Thoreau exhibition was almost as well-endowed with pictures, letters and memorabilia related to this Yankee philosopher. Even the lock on the Middlesex County Jail, where Thoreau spent a night-time of protest against the Mexican War, was on view.

Anne Lloyd (Photo 2017)

 Steel lock & key from Middlesex County Jail

As befits a reclusive individual, the Emily Dickinson exhibition was a more difficult proposition. The Morgan exhibition, I'm Nobody! Who are You? took an interesting route to gain insight into the source of Dickinson's creativity. The curators recreated the safe, cozy gentility of Dickinson's childhood. By taking this approach, the astonishing, unpredictable length to which her poetic vision carried Dickinson was underscored.

There is no calculus for determining genius. No secret formula will ever be be found in the arcane tomes of the alchemists. At some point, each creative person sits down before a sheaf of paper, a blank canvas, a smooth, untouched piece of marble. What happens next is inspiration, also impossible to define but an established fact. 

Ed Voves (Photo 2023) Gallery view of the Morgan's Bibles exhibition

 For one hundred years, the Morgan Library and Museum has been providing creative people with the means to be inspired and inspiring others to be creative. From a rich man's palazzo to a palace of enlightenment and enjoyment for all, the Morgan has truly become a place for inspiration.

One hundred years of inspiration at the Morgan! As the calendar page is flipped, a new century of inspiration begins.

***

Text: Copyright of Ed Voves, all rights reserved                                                

Original photography, copyright of Anne Lloyd and Ed Voves

 Introductory Image:                                                                           

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024)  The logo of the Morgan Library and Museum.

Brett Beyer (Photo 2022) J. Pierpont Morgan’a Library and Garden, view looking west toward the Annex. Courtesy of the Morgan Library and Museum, N.Y. Copyright Brett Beyer, 2022

J. Pierpont Morgan’a Library and Garden with sculptures of lionesses by Edward Clark Potter (photo by Henry Wysham Lanier), 1906 Gelatin silver print Morgan Library archives 

Brett Beyer (Photo 2022) Original entrance to J. Pierpont Morgan’a Library, evening view. Courtesy of the Morgan Library and Museum, N.Y. copyright Brett Beyer, 2022

Hayman Selig Mendelssohn (1848-1908) J. Pierpont Morgan, c. 1890. Photograph, Albumen Albumen print. Morgan Library archives

Ed Voves (Photo 2023) Gallery views of Pierpont Morgan's Library

Ed Voves (Photo 2023) Gallery view of the Rotunda of the Morgan Library and Museum

Udo J. Keppler (1872-1956) The Magnet, 1911. Published by Keppler & Swarzmann in Puck Magazine, Vol. 60, #1790. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Divison #2011649038

Ed Voves (Photo 2023) The Lindau Gospels, c. 880 (manuscript, from St. Gall in Switzerland) Front cover, France, c. 870; back cover, Salzburg, c. 780-800. Morgan Library and Museum.

Ed Voves (Photo 2023)  John Gutenberg’s Biblia Latina, c. 1455. Morgan Library and Museum.

Ed Voves (Photo 2023)  Samuel 1 and 2 in Coptic, before 893. Transcribed in Egypt, Al-Fayyum region. Morgan Library and Museum.

Ed Voves (Photo 2023) Gallery view of Pierpont Morgan's Library, East Room, showing terracotta bust of Belle da Costa Greene, by Jo Davidson. 

William Blake (1757-1827) America, a Prophecy, 1793-95. 18 plates (in 2 vplumes): illustrated; 53 cm. Morgan Library and Museum, purchased in 1909.

Ed Voves (Photo 2023) View of the Englehard Gallery during the Medieval Money, Merchants and Morality exhibition.

Anne Lloyd (Photo 2017) Exhibition banners, Summer 2017, at the Morgan Library and Museum.

Anne Lloyd (Photo 2024) View of the Beatrix Potter: Drawn to Nature Exhibition, with display of letters to Noel Moore, 1890’s

Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952) Self-Portrait, 1905. Photogravure: 18.5 x 12 cm. (7 5/16 x 4 ¾ in.) National Portrait Gallery, Washington D.C.

Edward S. Curtis  Native American Portraits from lantern slides: An unidentified girl (A:shiwi/Zuni), c. 1903;  Luzi (Tohono O’odham/Papago), c. 1906. Morgan Library and Museum.

Edward S. Curtis  The Courier (Apache), c. 1906. Lantern slide: photograph on glass, hand colored; 3 ¼ x 4 inches. Morgan Library and Museum.

Art Eyewitness Image. Photo Montage of Portraits of Charlotte Bronte, Emily Dickinson and Henry David Thoreau.

Anne Lloyd (Photo 2016) Charlotte Brontë’s portable writing desk, with contents including pen nibs, ink bottle, and other tools, Parsonage Museum, Haworth, UK

Anne Lloyd (Photo 2017) Steel lock and key from Middlesex County jail, ca. 1788 Concord Museum, gift of Cummings E. Davis, 1886; M2081

Ed Voves (Photo 2023) Gallery view of the Morgan's Bibles exhibition