Visiting Oz, Times Square and Mr. Morgan's library

Julie and Dan celebrated their anniversary with a weekend in Manhattan on July 7-8.

Saturday evening they dined on Restaurant Row, saw "Wicked" at the Gershwin Theater, strolled through Times Square and then had a drink in the Marriott Marquis lounge overlooking the square - just in time to watch a thunderstorm from behind the glass.

On Sunday they were in the mood for a short visit to an uncrowded museum, and discovered the Morgan Library & Museum at Madison Avenue and 36th Street. The museum incorporates the library built to hold J. P. Morgan's vast collection of books, artworks and antiquities, along with two adjacent Morgan family houses.

This is J. Pierpont Morgan's study, a cozy room with a fireplace, red silk wall coverings and rare books and Renaissance artworks. Here Julie reads descriptions of some of the objects on the wall behind J.P.'s desk.

This is the East Room, or main library. The size of the collection of books is incredible, as is the age of many of the volumes. One wall is dominated by this tapestry.

"The sixteenth-century Netherlandish tapestry over the mantelpiece depicts avarice, one of the seven deadly sins, personified by the mythological King Midas." - Morgan Library & Museum

The library holds three Gutenberg Bibles, printed in 1455, and has one on display at all times.


There are many other books dated as far back as the 1500s, although many of those appear to have been re-bound. They include scores of other Bibles and religious texts as well as works of literature.