Let's Talk About Morgan Library And Museum

I've lived in New York for decades,now, but never lose that thrill, that awe at this amazing city and all it offers It's remarkable that every Friday there is a new Weekend Arts section in the New York Times, and it is always chockablock with things to do in every possible arena--from classical music to movies (popular to esoteric, you'll find it here) to exhibits to expositions to gallery openings to museums to...well you get the picture.

Sunday was one of those days I decided to make the most of this happy accident of my residence here so I took off on my own to visit just a few of these delights. 

Perhaps the best was the Morgan Library & Museum.  I haven't been there in a while and the JP Morgan Library--his own private library, lined with books, in which he gathered the heads of the trust companies on that famous Sunday night in 1907, locked the doors, and told the gentlemen that they had to stay until they solve the financial crisis (called the "Bankers' Panic") before it exploded into true disaster.  They did, he opened the doors and at 6 AM, they walked out into the New York morning in which all things had changed regarding America's financial future, thanks to their action. 

My favorite thing at the Morgan on this trip was a visit to the newly redone Rotunda, the area into which JP Morgan's guests would enter as they passed through the magnificent set of doors from the Street.  It is a special space, beautifully crafted of harmonizing shades of marble, with a focus on the colorful ceiling.  But best of all is the exhibit on the left side as you enter, of a letter written by Thomas Jefferson to his daughter Martha.  She had apparently complained about having to study Livy in Latin, and his reply was that hard work and discipline are necessary for Americans to get ahead.  He noted that Europeans have every imaginable shop on their street corners, where the world's treasures are available to them.  Not so in the States, says Jefferson.  Instead, Americans must work diligently and better themselves so that the American character honed by hard work will in the end build a republic that will be the envy of the world.

I can imagine the conversations he had with his daughters, can't you?  He was looking ahead to the America that we have inherited.  Would Jefferson be pleased if, in conversation with us, he would learn that many children not only don't study diligently, they long ago gave up any interest in Latin?  in the classics?  Would he be disappointed to hear that in America now, our shops--our Wal-Mart, sell every possible kind of goods, many of them made elsewhere and many of them disposable, not to be treasured?

Here is the pertinent section of the letter: "It is a part of the American character to consider nothing as desperate--to surmount every difficulty with resolution and contrivance.  In Europe there are shops for every want: its inhabitants therefore have no idea that there wants can be furnished otherwise.  Remote from all other aid, we are obliged to invent and execute; to find means within ourselves, and not to lean on others.  Consider, therefore, the conquering of your Livy as an exercise in the habit of surmounting difficulties; a habit which will be necessary for you in the Country in which you are to live.and without which you will be thought a very helpless animal and less esteemed.." 

What would that conversation be like, I wonder...?