An Introduction to the Morgan Library & Museum

The Morgan Library & Museum is a lot of different things to a lot of different people. It’s a museum, a research space, an event venue, an educational facility, a library. It’s a place for deep research and contemplation, and also a place to grab a bite for lunch.

The Morgan Library & Museum began as the personal library of financier, collector, and cultural benefactor Pierpont Morgan. As early as 1890 Morgan and his librarian Belle Da Costa Greene had begun to assemble a collection of illuminated, literary, and historical manuscripts, early printed books, and old master drawings and prints. In 1924, eleven years after Pierpont Morgan's death, his son, J. P. Morgan, Jr., known as Jack, realized that his father’s library had become too important to remain in private hands. In what constituted one of the most momentous cultural gifts in U.S. history, he fulfilled his father's dream of making the library and its treasures available to scholars and the public alike by transforming it into a public institution.

In this video, learn more about the library’s history and its role as a modern day cultural and historical institution.