The Morgan is one of my favorite NYC places to visit.
I love the changing exhibits, with different old manuscripts every time I’m there.
And I’ve never taken a docent-led tour, so on this trip I spent an hour with a small group of others, all Americans, I think, learning from a Morgan employee.
And then I had my Wednesday lunch at the Morgan cafe: deviled eggs, a chicken and mushroom toastie.
While at luncheon, I was aware of a clear and certain incongruity: reading (and finishing) a book on the Kindle app on my iPhone while being surrounded by one of the world’s greatest private collections of books and manuscripts!
Along the way I saw signatures and written letters of Mozart, Machiavelli, Darwin, Goethe, and others. And a bill from Sigmund Freud. And a receipt signed in massive script by Beethoven.
Gershwin
And Beethoven:
Beethoven
Here’s a manuscript by Mahler:
And in the North Room, incredibly detailed ancient cylinders that predate the alphabet: