Belle da Costa Greene: A Librarian's Legacy

The incredible story of the first director of the Morgan Library: a visionary Black woman who walked confidently in an early twentieth-century man’s world of wealth and privilege.

When J. P. Morgan’s personal library opened as a public institution in 1924, the choice for its first director was an obvious one: Belle da Costa Greene (1879–1950). Not only had she organized and catalogued the collection, she had significantly expanded its holdings and displayed its treasures in curated exhibitions. While she was well known for her librarianship in her lifetime, few people also knew that she had been born to a prominent Black family, and by her early twenties was passing as white in New York City.

Published to coincide with the centennial of her appointment as director and a related exhibition, Belle da Costa Greene: A Librarian’s Legacy presents a thematic collection of essays with new research on her family, education, portraits, professional networks, and her own art collection, while also engaging with larger themes such as race in America, gender and culture, and the history of Black librarianship. The book offers a full picture of Greene on her own terms and in her own words—revealing her rich career as a curator, collector, library executive and a dynamic New Yorker.

Author(s): Erica Ciallela, Philip S. Palmer.

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Hardcover, DelMonico Books / Morgan Library & Museum, 2024
304 p, 8 × 10.5 in.