The Vision of the Greatest Librarian: Belle da Costa Greene

The words ‘famous’ and ‘librarian’ rarely appear in the same sentence. But Belle da Costa Greene was both. She purchased far too many wonderful books to name. Under the dusty amber-hued glow of Manhattan’s Morgan Library, she became the custodian of the world’s greatest treasures. She was the visionary who built an empire of words… in secret.

On a cold December day in 1905, a young librarian walked into the Manhattan office of America’s most powerful man. They sized each other up. To her, the towering tycoon appeared intelligent and curious about the world around him.

To him, the young librarian appeared posed and precise. After a few moments of silence, the conversation began to flow freely. They soon realised they shared an interest in old things. From rare books to manuscripts and tapestries. That tycoon was one JP Morgan.

Without a second thought, he hired the young librarian.

Soon, she dined with opera stars, tycoons and monarchs. She captivated everyone with her wit and intellect but, in her words, she lived behind a ‘curtain of the mind’. She told everyone she was Portuguese, but she was black. It was a lie that set her fate in stone but why lie at all?

The Passing Romance of the Washington Girl

The ‘art’ of passing throws a shadow over history. Nobody knows how many light-skinned black Americans, driven by prejudice, crossed the race line to live as white people. Belle de Costa Greene was one. Some see her choice as an act of heroism. Others see it as an act of betrayal.

She was born in 1879 in Washington DC. She spent her childhood between Washington and New York City. After her parents separated, Belle, her mother, and sisters began ‘passing’ as white. It was a way to pass through society to avoid discrimination.

This choice influenced the rest of Belle’s life.

Her mother was a socialite associated with prominent black families in Washington. Her father was the first black student at Harvard and went on to become a lawyer, lecturer, and ambassador. Belle learned from her father to appreciate history and its treasures.

Even as a young girl, Belle held ambitions higher than the top shelf of the bookcase. She felt drawn to work with rare books since she was 12. She said:

“I wanted to work with rare books. I loved them even then, the sight of them, the wonderful feel of them, the romance and the thrill of them.”

Jim Crow laws made her father’s life a living hell, so how could Belle hope to succeed? Belle got an answer when her parents separated.

After changing their names, Belle and her mother walked into Manhattan’s white society and never looked back.

A Chance Encounter with Morgan’s Millions

Belle became a librarian at Princeton, where she met another librarian: JP Morgan’s nephew. He took note of her. His uncle needed someone to oversee his lavish new library. And so Belle got the job. It came with a rather nifty $75-a-week wage. Or about $141,000 a year in today’s money…

She was now working for a man who terrified everyone he met.

By 1905, JP Morgan controlled half of America’s railways. He was the mastermind behind the mergers that created General Electric, US Steel, and AT&T. Yet Morgan studied art history rather than finance.

With a fondness for ‘the finer things in life’, he soon had his librarian doing more than she expected. Morgan once labelled Belle da Costa Greene ‘the cleverest girl I know.’

They collaborated to create one of America’s premier collections of Western civilisation relics. Belle purchased masterpieces by Raphael, Rembrandt, and Michelangelo, demonstrating remarkable knowledge.

She paid a small fortune for Egyptian scrolls and outbid the British Museum on ancient tablets and illustrated wonders. And she did it all in secret. Nobody knew her true heritage, which she kept a secret until she died.

Her job was more than classifying and maintaining the preservation of valuable manuscripts and rare books. At the time, her responsibilities included ‘purchasing agent, personal reader, companion, and more.’ This ‘more’ appears to have included the responsibility of becoming Morgan’s principal advisor.

Belle was now at the right hand of one of the most powerful men in the world.

The Soul of the Morgan Library

Belle’s brilliance and vibrant personality made her famous and invaluable to Morgan. In a nutshell, Belle was Morgan’s go-to collector.

This relationship was not sexual, as some suspected, but it was intimate. They shared many interests and spent long hours together talking about almost everything. From books to people, from politics to finance, from the library to Morgan’s family.

By 1912, Belle was earning a quarter of a million dollars a year. Or around $7.60 million in today’s money. And remember, although Belle was living as a white woman, she was black. And she knew how to live.

Everyone knew Belle was rich. She wore plumed caps and elegant clothes. She captivated everyone she met, from opera stars to tycoons and monarchs. Europe’s salons adored her. She posed for Henri Matisse. And she had affairs with two men at once: a Norwegian count and an Italian duke.

Heck, if you have money, why not flaunt it?

JP Morgan died in 1913. He spent over half of his $3 billion on art. Some went to the Met, but the rest stayed in the hands of Belle. For the next 35 years, as director of the Morgan Library, she sought to make it one of the great libraries.

She wanted to share the illuminated manuscripts with others. It’s why she advocated for them to be ‘available to the public, not locked in the vaults of private collectors.’

The beautiful library stands to this day as a monument to knowledge and creativity. Although it carries Morgan’s name, Belle was the one who created it.

She died of cancer on May 10^th, 1950 at the age of 71. Shortly before her death, she burnt all her personal papers to obscure her true heritage. Even at the end, no one knew her secret. No one knew she was black.

It wasn’t until many years later when Morgan’s biographers dug into Belle’s life they uncovered the truth. By then, she was ‘The Soul of the Morgan Library’ and regarded as a treasure in her own right.

Today, we remember the unusual collaboration between Belle and Morgan. A shared passion for art that almost transcended all other barriers.

The Vision of the Greatest Librarian

Belle was the black woman who managed Morgan’s millions.

She is often regarded as one of the most important librarians who ever lived. An illustrated manuscript aficionado, she engaged and worked with the public so they could enjoy and study medieval texts.

Yet she is little known today, while everyone has heard of JP Morgan. Just as Belle buried her race, so has the name and legacy of one of the few black and female figures in the study of art history. She is not a betrayer but a hero who did what she had to do to survive and thrive. There was no other way.

Surrounding her was a mysterious aura. She created an ambiguous racial identity for herself. Regardless of the mystery, we cannot overlook her professional contributions as a librarian.

Belle held a prominent position for a woman at the time, first as JP Morgan’s personal librarian and then as the Morgan Library’s first director. In many ways, she was one-of-a-kind, difficult to categorise, but brilliant all the same.

“Just because I am a librarian doesn’t mean I have to dress like one.”
– Belle da Costa Greene.

Toodle-Pip :}{:

Post UG: What do you think of Belle’s work, reader?