Between 1902 and 1906 Pierpont Morgan built a library adjacent to his home on Madison Avenue and 36th Street unlike any New York City had seen.
The financier already had a grand standing in the city. He descended from five generations of longtime New Englanders; both sides of his family were some of the earliest settlers in America, arriving before the American Revolution. On his mom’s side was James Pierpont, the founder of Yale. His grandfather Joseph started the
He was also an avid collector, buying books and manuscripts from all over the world. One of his first purchases was the Lindau Gospels, which has a unique metal cover. Later in life he bought autographed manuscripts of Charles Dickens and Mark Twain. He even has a tapestry that ironically depicts one of the seven deadly sins: greed.
Needing an impressive place to hold meetings (he averted a crisis here in the early 1900s by locking all the big bankers in and making them sort out a deal so the market wouldn’t crash) and show-off his treasures, he built the library known as “Mr. Morgan’s library.” Looking like it belongs in a palace in Europe, the rotunda entrance to the library boasts portraits of the great stories of civilization. Homer and Orpheus, Athena, Hermes, and Calliope, the Muse of
Inside, the library has thirty feet walls with walnut shelves stretching from floor to ceiling. There are secret ladders, hidden in bookshelves, to get to the top floor. A hefty vault protects the more serious pieces. The room looks like a starker version of the fictional library in Beauty and the Beast.
Now, the library is part of the Morgan Library & Museum. Usually you can only go inside to browse Morgan's treasures and others the museum has acquired over time. Patrons use hushed tones and security guards make sure you don’t get close to everything. But one day a year, during the holiday season, the Young Fellows of the Morgan hold their winter gala inside the library.
On this night guests, twenty and thirty-somethings dressed in tuxedos and ball gowns, actually party in the library. Guests mingle, dance, even network, while browsing the library's exhibits. Imagine reading an original copy of the Magna Carta with a glass of wine in your hand. In addition to canapes and a full bar, the library provides librarians and museum curators to answer any questions you might have. They are drinking too, so the answers are even more livelier than you would imagine. The highlight of the evening is when a member of staff ascends to the library balcony and recites a passage from Dickens’ The Christmas Carol. The reader, of course, is reading it out of an original copy owned by Morgan and now part of the museum.
The affair feels like you are in a scene from long ago and for just a few hours, you can imagine you were invited there by Piermont Morgan himself.
This year’s event will be held on Wednesday, December 9, 2015. You can buy tickets here.
