Deborah Parker’s “Becoming Belle da Costa Greene” Gives Us a Look at Pierpont Morgan's Amazing Librarian

“Behind the curtain of my mind!”: on Deborah Parker’s “Becoming Belle da Costa Greene: A Visionary Librarian through her Letters”, Florence: I Tatti, 2024

The Library World knows Belle da Costa Greene, (1879-1950) as the “First Lady of American Librarianship”.

In 1905, the twenty-six-year-old Belle was appointed as J. P. Morgan’s librarian. At that time, she had minimal special training: a summer cataloging class at Amherst, and three years of cataloging work at the Princeton Library. It is there that she met Junius, J.P. Morgan’s nephew, who recommended her to his uncle. Painfully conscious of her lack of academic background in a world brimming with distinguished scholars, Belle used every opportunity to acquire knowledge. She organized Morgan’s large, unsystematic collections, embarked on disciplined collection building expeditions throughout Europe, and, in time, created one of the richest and most celebrated educational institutions in the world: today’s Morgan Library & Museum.

In a male dominated society, where a woman, let alone a young woman of mixed race, could hardly aspire to achieve any leadership role, Belle did not only excel, but was recognized as an authority, an admired and venerated specialist.

Much has been written about her organizational skills and collection development achievements. Now, through her letters to Bernard Berenson (1865-1959), Renaissance art historian and scholar, and consultant to American collectors, Professor Deborah Parker allows us a unique and fascinating insight into Belle’s emotions, her love of learning and zest for life: we get to know and admire Belle’s vibrant passion for literature, art and rare books, we read about her travels. Alas, we only have Belle’s letters, kept by Berenson, for she destroyed her entire archive before her death in 1950.

“I will write you of what is behind the curtain of my mind”, she confesses to Berenson, (April 19, 1909: see D. Parker, “Becoming Belle (…), p. 13).

Professor Parker’s excellent study introduces us to Belle’s private and professional life with scholarly knowledge, with elegance, talent and ease: the first four chapters of the book focus on Belle’s “voice and style”; we then get to know Belle, the Librarian, her becoming Morgan’s right hand, her romance with books and art, as we admire her love of life at work.

Her passion is oftentimes expressed in literary terms, citing Dante, Rossetti, Boccacio. Traveling through Europe, she is forever eager to expend her knowledge: she studies Italian, French, German, Latin and Greek, admires Chinese landscape paintings, and explores not only the impressionists and post-impressionists, but also modernists, such as Brancusi or Kandinsky.

Her epistolary style is vibrant, charged with emotion. Belle, as Professor Parker points out, expresses her feelings not only in descriptive and tender words but also through her unique use of punctuation and long pauses. Thanks to this marvelous study, the reader cannot but fall in love with Belle, adoring her sincerity, learning and admiring her vast erudition and her zest for life.

The Appendix offers full transcripts of all cited letters.

The physical book itself is a gem: the design is exquisite, the illustrations well-chosen and clear, the quality of the paper - excellent.

I highly recommend this marvelous work to libraries and book lovers everywhere.

Opritsa D. Popa, Distinguished Librarian Emerita, UC Davis