Program Videos

What does it mean for Kafka’s work that the first translations were by women? Join Michelle Woods as she examines this question in a lecture on Milena Jesenská and Willa Muir, and their roles in establishing Kafka as a globally influential writer.

A conversation with Maria Popova and composer Paola Prestini, lensed through the music manuscripts of Clara Schumann and others. New York-based composer-keyboardist Forrest Eimold will play selections of work discussed in the conversation.

Held Tuesday, February 4, 2025.

A conversation with Maria Popova and Caldecott-winning children’s book artist and author Sophie Blackall, lensed through Antoine de Saint- Exupéry's original watercolors for The Little Prince and Lewis Carroll’s diary entry from the day he first told the story of Wonderland to the real-life Alice. Held Tuesday, November 12, 2024.

Complementing the opening of the exhibition Belle da Costa Greene: A Librarian’s Legacy, this one-day scholarly symposium will bring together experts working on Belle Greene and/or the fields relevant to our understanding of her life and career, including African American history and literature, the history of museums and libraries, Medieval studies, art history, feminist bibliography, and book history. Held Friday, October 25, 2024.

Join Colin B. Bailey, Katharine J. Rayner Director of The Morgan Library & Museum, for a special opening night lecture that explores drawings by Rembrandt, Watteau, Degas, Renoir, and other highlights in the exhibition, Liberty to Imagination: Drawings from the Eveillard Gift. Held Friday, June 7, 2024.

Gail Levin's illustrated talk will draw extensively upon her interviews in the 1970s with Sonia Delaunay. She will illuminate the relationship of art by the Ukrainian-born French artist and works by the Swiss poet Cendrars to the American Synchromist painter Morgan Russell (1886–1953), contextualizing Cendrars's inscription to Russell on the copy of the 1913 book La prose du Transsibérien et de la petite Jehanne de France, featured in the Morgan’s exhibition Blaise Cendrars (1887–1961): Poetry Is Everything.

At the first international symposium devoted to the artist, scholars explore Gillot’s work and career in the context of the Paris art world, uncovering his professional network and assessing his contribution to changing tastes and his impact on the next generation of artists. Held Wednesday, May 10, 2023.

Dr. Colin B. Bailey, Director of the Morgan Library & Museum, traces the development of J. Pierpont Morgan as a collector of rare books and manuscripts. Held Tuesday, July 11, 2023.

The symposium is devoted to the drawings of the artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720–1778) and takes place in conjunction with the exhibition Sublime Ideas: Drawings by Giovanni Battista Piranesi on view at the Morgan from March 10 through June 4, 2023 and is presented by the Morgan Drawing Institute. Held Friday, June 2, 2023.

Examining drawings from across Piranesi's career, John Marciari, Charles W. Engelhard Curator, will explore the distinctive aspects of Piranesi's graphic style and the use and reuse of drawings in his busy workshop.

Philip Palmer, the Robert H. Taylor Curator and Department Head of Literary and Historical Manuscripts, takes an in-depth look at the draft manuscript and original artwork for Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince.

Held Wednesday, November 2, 2022

In celebration of Pride, the Morgan presents two lectures on queer artists Rick Barton and Ray Johnson. Held Friday, June 24, 2022.

Hans Holbein the Younger’s portrait of Sir Thomas More, painted in 1527, is one of the pinnacles of the artist’s career. Xavier F. Salomon, Deputy Director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator, The Frick Collection, explores the friendship between artist and sitter. Presented in conjunction with the exhibition Holbein: Capturing Character. Held Thursday, March 17, 2022.

Celebrate the opening of the exhibition Van Eyck to Mondrian: 300 Years of Collecting in Dresden with Stephanie Buck, Director of the Dresden Kupferstich-Kabinett, who explores the history of the Dresden collection and share insights into a number of exceptional drawings on view in the exhibition.

Held Friday, October 22, 2021.

In conjunction with the exhibition, Sikander: Extraordinary Realities,join the MacArthur Fellow and artist Shahzia Sikander in a virtual conversation with Roya Hakakian, poet and author of Beginners Guide to America: For the Immigrant and the Curious,moderated by Vishakha N. Desai, Senior Advisor for Global Affairs to the President of Columbia University.

Through the stories of Belle da Costa Greene (1879–1950), private librarian of J. Pierpont Morgan and first director of the Morgan; Felice Stampfle (1913–2000), first curator of the collection of Drawings and Prints; and Edith Porada (1912–1994), honorary curator of Ancient Mesopotamian Seals and Tablets, we will explore the lasting mark that women have made at the Morgan through their leadership, scholarship, and acquisitions.

 In conjunction with the exhibition Conversations in Drawing: Seven Centuries of Art from the Gray Collection, join us for a virtual conversation with Jim Dine, whose own work is featured in the show, discussing his drawing practice in relation to the history of Western art as represented in the exhibition by artists such as Veronese, Rubens, Ingres, Picasso, and Matisse. Held Wednesday, March 10, 2021.

Join Christine Nelson, Drue Heinz Curator of Literary and Historical Manuscripts, for a fresh look at Anne Brontë (1820–1849), bold author and truth-teller, through the artifacts she left behind. Held Monday, November 23, 2020.

Join Dr. Carla Hayden, Librarian of Congress, and Dr. Colin B. Bailey, Director of the Morgan Library & Museum, for a discussion about the genesis of their institutions' collections and current missions, the challenges of physical custodianship in a digital age, and the roles played by the different directors of each institution, notably the Morgan's inaugural director, the African-American librarian and scholar, Belle da Costa Greene.

A virtual symposium reflecting on the exhibitions and research of the 2019 Rembrandt anniversary year. Co-sponsored by The Leiden Collection and the Drawing Institute of the Morgan Library & Museum. Held Friday, October 30, 2020.

Join Deirdre Jackson, Assistant Curator of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts, as she focuses on the Morgan's "Worksop Bestiary" (MS M.81), made in England around 1185, which contains vibrant images of over 100 creatures. Held Wednesday, September 30, 2020.

This lecture by Colin B. Bailey, Director, offers a brief survey of the various iterations of the nude in Renoir’s long career—from his student days at the École des Beaux-Arts, his earliest affiliation with Monet and the future Impressionists, and the “crisis years” of the 1880s, to the last decades of his life, in which the female nude became the dominant subject of his repertory.

In this two-part videos series, self-proclaimed letter-writing enthusiast (and Mean Girls star) Rajiv Surendra guides us through the art of writing a letter and maintaining a handwritten correspondence.

Join Jennifer Tonkovich, Eugene and Clare Thaw Curator of Drawings and Prints, as she explores the creation of the splendid interiors of J. Pierpont Morgan's Library.

Join Joshua O'Driscoll, Assistant Curator of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts, for a virtual exploration of a 1,200-year-old book that forms the cornerstone of the renowned collection of illuminated manuscripts at the Morgan Library & Museum. Held Wednesday, July 1, 2020.

Rachel Federman, Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Drawings and curator of the 2019 exhibition By Any Means: Contemporary Drawings from the Morgan, will investigate the intersection of drawing and computer technology and its impact on contemporary art.

Join Frank Trujillo, Drue Heinz Book Conservator, and Roger S. Wieck, Melvin R. Seiden Curator of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts, for a discussion of the Morgan's Black Hours. Held Wednesday, June 17, 2020.

Join Robinson McClellan, Assistant Curator of Music, to explore Beethoven’s creative choices, hear transcriptions of passages he discarded, and probe what E.T.A. Hoffmann meant when he wrote, of Beethoven, “His kingdom is not of this world.”

Join Philip S. Palmer, Robert H. Taylor Curator of Literary and Historical Manuscripts, for a closer look at Sir Isaac Newton's notebook, which comprises a diverse range of recipes, astronomical tables, mathematical problems, and linguistic observations.  Held Wednesday, April 15, 2020.

Join Basile C. Baudez, Assistant Professor at Princeton University, for a presentation contextualizing Lequeu’s production in the history of architectural draftsmanship and to uncover the reasons why he remains one of the most fascinating artists of his time. Held Friday, January 31, 2020.

In this conversation, Pierluigi Ledda, Managing Director of the Ricordi Archive, and Gabriele Dotto, Ricordi Archive Scientific Director and exhibition curator, discuss the history and resources of the Archive in general, and specifically the creation of Verdi’s operas Otello and Falstaff. Held Wednesday, October 2, 2019.

Carel van Tuyll, former director of the Department of Graphic Arts at the Musée du Louvre and the Drawing Institute’s 2019 Senior Fellow, gives the annual Thaw Lecture. Sponsored by the Morgan Drawing Institute, the annual Thaw Lecture aims to address critical topics in the study of drawings. Held Tuesday, June 11, 2019

Join Davide Gasparotto, Senior Curator of Paintings, J. Paul Getty Museum, for a discussion on works by Jacopo da Pontormo (1494–1557), executed between 1528 and 1530.

Sir Nicholas Penny, former director of the National Gallery, London, and the Thaw Senior Fellow at the Morgan Drawing Institute for 2018, gave the annual Thaw Lecture on "The Zoomorphic Mask." Held Tuesday, June 12, 2018.

Martin Puchner, Byron and Anita Wien Professor of Drama and of English and Comparative Literature at Harvard University (author of The Written World), leads us on a journey through time and around the globe to reveal the powerful role stories and literature have played in creating the world we have today. Held Tuesday, May 22, 2018.

Corrêa do Lago joins Christine Nelson, Drue Heinz Curator of Literary and Historical Manuscripts, for a lively discussion about the lure of handwriting and the joy of collecting.

The ancient Mesopotamian cylinder seals in the collection of the Morgan are amongst the finest in the world. Sidney Babcock, Jeannette and Jonathan Rosen Curator and Department Head, discusses cylinder seals. Held Monday, April 9, 2018.

In this lecture, David Freedberg, Pierre Matisse Professor of the History of Art at Columbia University and Director of the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America, will demonstrate how the drawings in the exhibition Power and Grace: Drawings by Rubens, Van Dyck, and Jordaens reveal not just his artistic virtuosity, but his efforts to seek peace in his time.
Held on Wednesday, April 11, 2018.

Roger S. Wieck, Melvin R. Seiden Curator and Department Head of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts and curator of Now and Forever: The Art of Medieval Time, and Alexander Jones, Leon Levy Director of the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, discuss and illustrate Roman time and how it evolved in the medieval era. Held on Thursday, March 29, 2018.

Join Laura Dassow Walls, author of the forthcoming Henry David Thoreau: A Life, for an illustrated presentation on the profound, inspiring complexity of Henry David Thoreau.

Colin B. Bailey, Director of the Morgan Library & Museum, traces Boucher’s process in the elaboration of his masterpiece, examines the tradition of marine mythologies from Raphael to Poussin and beyond, and considers some of the textual and pictorial sources which may have inspired the painter. Presented on Wednesday, March 1, 2017.