The Morgan Garden is back!

Due to poor air quality, the Morgan Garden will be closed to the public on Friday, June 9 through Sunday, June 11, 2023.

The Morgan Garden reopens on Friday, May 5th! Join us this spring and summer to experience the Morgan Garden! Visitors to the Morgan are able to enjoy the Garden with museum admission every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, through October 29, 2023. The Garden will also remain open during Free Friday Nights from 5–7 pm every Friday evening.

Developed by award-winning landscape designer Todd Longstaffe-Gowan, the Morgan Garden includes periwinkle beds flanking the Library’s loggia and colorful, low-height herbaceous beds. A generous grass lawn sweeps out from the modern pavilion next to the Library, bordering the latter and the Annex. Bluestone pathways are laid in patterns derived from the Library’s Renaissance-inspired floors, and cobbled stonework adds visual and textural interest. The garden also displays several antiquities from the Morgan’s collection that have previously been inaccessible to the public.

Come relax and enjoy one of New York City's most elegant greenspaces!

Nora Thompson Dean: Lenape Teacher and Herbalist

June 6 through September 17, 2023
Black-and-white portrait of Nora Thompson Dean at three quarter angle looking down.

An exhibition in the Rotunda of the 1906 Library and an installation in the Morgan Garden, developed collaboratively with the Lenape Center and Hudson Valley Farm Hub, honors Nora Thompson Dean (1907–1984), a Lenape teacher and herbalist who worked to preserve Lenape culture. Born and raised in Oklahoma, Dean made multiple influential visits to Lenapehoking, the ancestral lands of the Lenape (an area that now encompasses New Jersey and sections of New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Connecticut). The exhibition, incorporating letters, photographs, and printed materials, sheds light on different aspects of Nora Thompson Dean's life and teaching. It is complemented by an installation of plants important to the Lenape in the Morgan Garden, including corn, squash, and beans.

Listen to audio guide

This exhibition and garden installation is organized by the Morgan Library & Museum in collaboration with The Lenape Center and the Hudson Valley Farm Hub. It is made possible by the Sherman Fairchild Fund for Exhibitions.

Nora Thompson Dean. Photograph by Roy Pataro.

Spring Family Fair

Sunday, May 7, 2023, 2–4:00 PM

Celebrate the spring season with the reopening of the Morgan Garden and enjoy crafts, live music, and readings themed to our current exhibitions.

All activities are free with museum admission. The Morgan is free to children twelve and under.

Welcome back to the Morgan Garden! The Morgan Garden will be available, weather permitting, during opening hours, 10:30 AM to 5:00 PM. Pick up a copy of our Morgan Garden Family Guide and explore!

2–4:00 PM

Visit the Welcome Table to sign up for the family raffle of Morgan Shop books. The raffle drawing will take place at 3:55pm in the Gilbert Court.

Free Morgan tote bags to the first 100 families to sign up for the raffle. Limit one tote bag per family.

Family Activities
Live Music in the Garden by the Alex Nguyen Trio.

How Does Your Garden Grow?
Create your own garden with rainbow scratch paper and springtime stencil designs.

Venetian Glass Butterflies
Design a tissue paper suncatcher to dazzle your windows all season.

Write On!
On the Morgan’s Poetry Wall, write your own unique verses.

Head in the Hole
Get into character, literally, as J. Pierpont Morgan or the museum’s first director, Belle da Costa Greene, using our head-in-the-hole board created by artist Pam Koehler.

Ancient Animals: Scavenger Hunt
2:00-3:00pm
Prowl the Morgan Garden for beasts and birds inspired by ancient art.

Off the Page: Family Storytime in the East Room
3:00-3:30pm
Join Mx. Jezz Bold of The Brooklyn Public Library for an interactive storytime program including song, movement, and imagination.