AILSA CHANG, HOST:
The name Belle da Costa Greene might not ring a bell, but New York's renowned historic Morgan Library and Museum is trying to change that. A new exhibit called "A Librarian's Legacy" opens today, just in time for the Morgan's 100th anniversary. It traces Greene's life and her lasting influence as the library's first director and collector. It was an unusually prominent role for a woman at the time - a woman who chose to pass as white to survive in a highly segregated America.
The Morgan Library was built and founded by J. Pierpont Morgan, one of the richest and most powerful bankers in the early 20th century. It houses a one-of-a-kind collection of medieval writings, rare books and illuminated manuscripts, thanks in large part to Belle da Costa Greene. Erica Ciallela is an exhibit curator for "A Librarian's Legacy" at the Morgan Library, and she joins us now. Welcome.
ERICA CIALLELA: Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to talk about Belle Greene.
CHANG: Oh, well, we're so excited to have you. So just explain, first of all - like, how did Belle da Costa Greene come to be associated with the Morgan Library in the first place?
CIALLELA: Yeah, so she just was working as a librarian at Princeton University and really caught the attention of a gentleman by the name of Junius Morgan, who was an associate librarian there and just happened to be the nephew of Pierpont Morgan, who was, at this time, in the city, wondering what to do with his amazing collection he had already start to collect and was, unfortunately, just kind of everywhere in his home. And he decided to build a library next door to his townhouse on Madison, and he needed a librarian to run it. And Junius said, I think I have the perfect person for you. And in 1905, she began working for Pierpont Morgan as his librarian, cataloging his collection and eventually stewarding this amazing building that we have and are celebrating still today.
CHANG: I love that. I want to talk a little bit about her personal story because Greene - I mean, she was a Black woman, but she didn't live her life publicly as a Black woman. She chose to pass as white. Can you talk about that - like, why she felt she had to do that? How did she do that? Please, tell me more.
CIALLELA: Yes, of course. I mean, the decision to pass was actually a family choice, and it was really spearheaded by her mother, Genevieve, who not only made the decision for all of Greene and her siblings to pass, but did it fairly early on, when Greene was still in school. She had lived in Washington, D.C. She had lived previously in South Carolina and really saw the struggles of what it meant to be African American in this country, what it was like during Reconstruction in the South. And so she really kind of knew that, in order to move forward, sometimes you have to do what you have to do.
CHANG: Did anyone ever suspect that she was not white? Do you know of any incident, any confrontation?
CIALLELA: We do know that, like, newspaper reporters - they would always point out her dark hair or her wild hair or the darker skin color.
CHANG: Her wild hair - wow. And do you have any sense of what that did in the long term to her psyche, her identity, passing as white day-to-day for so much of her life?
CIALLELA: She had a 10-volume set of diaries, and she does burn these before she passes away. But we do have a letter she wrote to the art historian, Bernard Berenson, where she said that she - that is where she wrote things down that she dare not even think to herself. So what that means, unfortunately we're never going to know. But, I mean, it's got to have been a struggle. And, I mean, it's actually incredible that she was made director as a woman.
CHANG: Yeah.
CIALLELA: I mean, most directors of these kinds of institutions were not women at this time, either. So she had - you know, there's not only the racial issue she was up against but the gender ones as well. I mean, she becomes director very shortly after women gained the right to vote. So, I mean, this is really an important time in American history to think of what women's rights in general were at this time and how much she was saying, I'm not going to conform to these ideals. I'm going to be my own person.
CHANG: That's so cool. How would you characterize her larger legacy outside of the Morgan Library, looking back on all of this?
CIALLELA: She really believed in accessing a collection, being able to use a collection - that it shouldn't just sit on a shelf - that she really wanted people to interact with that. And that's something that librarians today hold dear. But it wasn't the trend back then, and she really was a trailblazer for a special collection being used and not just something pretty you look at - but what can we learn from it? How do we access it? And that everyone - she really believed that everyone should have access to these materials, not just the super wealthy. And I think that is really a testament to her and the legacy she leaves behind to a much more larger library community.
CHANG: I can't wait to check this out. Erica Ciallela, an exhibit curator for "A Librarian's Legacy," the Morgan Library's exhibit on its first ever director and librarian, Belle da Costa Greene. It opens today in New York. Thank you so much for speaking with us, Erica.
CIALLELA: Thank you for having me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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