Belle da Costa Greene’s office, known as the North Room, was prominently located off the Rotunda and luxuriously adorned. The antique stone mantelpiece (adapted for the room) was flanked by custom-made cabinets that Greene and her assistant, Ada Thurston, filled with catalogue cards describing Morgan’s books and manuscripts.
For this staged photograph, a framed print of Edward Steichen’s now-iconic 1903 photographic portrait of J. Pierpont Morgan was placed atop the cabinet at right. The picture on the left cabinet depicts J. P. Morgan Jr. (“Jack”), who founded the Pierpont Morgan Library (now the Morgan Library & Museum) as a public institution in 1924.
Tebbs & Knell, New York
The North Room of J. Pierpont Morgan’s Library, 1923–ca. 1935
Gelatin silver print
The Morgan Library & Museum Archives; ARC 1600.1