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.