Pierpont Morgan's immense holdings ranged from Egyptian art to Renaissance paintings to Chinese porcelains. For his library, Morgan acquired illuminated, literary, and historical manuscripts, early printed books, and old master drawings and prints. To this core collection, he added the earliest evidence of writing as manifested in ancient seals, tablets, and papyrus fragments from Egypt and the Near East. Morgan also collected manuscripts and printed materials significant to American history.

Over the years—through purchases and generous gifts—the Morgan has continued to actively acquire rare materials as well as important music manuscripts, a fine collection of early children's books and manuscripts, and materials from the twentieth century (as well as earlier periods). Nevertheless the focus on the written word, the history of the book, and master drawings has been maintained.

In 1928, the Annex building was erected on the corner of Madison Avenue and 36th Street, replacing Pierpont Morgan's residence. The Annex connected to the original McKim library by means of a gallery. In 1988, Jack Morgan's former residence—a mid-nineteenth century brownstone on Madison Avenue and 37th Street—also was added to the complex. The 1991 garden court was constructed as a means to unite the various elements of the Morgan campus.

The largest expansion in the Morgan's history, adding 75,000 square feet to the campus, was completed in 2006. Designed by Pritzker Prize–winning architect Renzo Piano, the project increases exhibition space by more than fifty percent and adds important visitor amenities, including a new performance hall, a welcoming entrance on Madison Avenue, a new café and a new restaurant, a shop, a new reading room, and collections storage. Piano's design integrates the Morgan's three historical buildings with three new modestly scaled steel-and-glass pavilions. A soaring central court connects the buildings and serves as a gathering place for visitors in the spirit of an Italian piazza.

The Morgan Library & Museum invites you to share in its great tradition by participating in its membership program. Members receive free admission; invitations to private viewings of new exhibitions; discounts on lectures and concerts; discounts at the Morgan Shop; and other benefits, depending on their level of support. Support from members is fundamental to The Morgan Library & Museum in its local, national, and international roles as a museum and a research library.

Entertaining at the Morgan is a privilege we extend to our Corporate Members and Institutional Donors. The unique spaces of The Morgan Library & Museum span three centuries of architectural excellence and are unrivaled in their quality, beauty, and distinction. The Morgan is pleased to make available to corporations and professional organizations its traditional period rooms in the original 1906 library; historic family rooms in the nineteenth-century Morgan house; and the splendid spaces designed by Pritzker Prize–winning architect Renzo Piano, including a spacious glass-enclosed central court, new meeting rooms, and a performance hall. The Morgan features several handsomely renovated period rooms, a sophisticated 264-seat performance hall, a 75-seat education center, and a spacious glass-enclosed central court, along with many more art galleries and gracious public amenities. The spaces make stunning surroundings for client entertaining, corporate celebrations, board meetings, presentations, and conferences. If you would like to receive more information about the Morgan's corporate program, please write, call, or e-mail:

The mission of The Morgan Library & Museum is to preserve, build, study, present, and interpret a collection of extraordinary quality, in order to stimulate enjoyment, excite the imagination, advance learning, and nurture creativity. A global institution focused on the European and American traditions, the Morgan houses one of the world's foremost collections of manuscripts, rare books, music, drawings, and ancient and other works of art. These holdings, which represent the legacy of Pierpont Morgan and numerous later benefactors, comprise a unique and dynamic record of civilization, as well as an incomparable repository of ideas and of the creative process.

In 1924 J. P. Morgan, Jr. gave his father's extraordinary library to the public. The most influential financier in this country's history, Pierpont Morgan was also a voracious collector. He bought on an astonishing scale, collecting art objects in virtually every medium, including the rare books, manuscripts, drawings, prints, and ancient artifacts that are the core of The Morgan Library & Museum's holdings.

Now recognized as one of the world's greatest treasuries of seminal artistic, literary, musical, and historical works, The Morgan Library & Museum began in the 1890s as the private collection of the legendary American financier Pierpont Morgan. Although the well-educated Morgan was neither a scholar nor a connoisseur in the strictest sense of the word, he acquired, with a keen and intuitive eye, on a vast scale both in quality and scope.