Greene, Belle da Costa (1883–1950)

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Greene, Belle da Costa (1883–1950)

American librarian and bibliographer. Born in Alexandria, Virginia, on December 13, 1883; died in New York, New York, on May 10, 1950; second daughter and third of five children of Richard and Genevieve (Van Vliet) Greene; attended local schools in Princeton, New Jersey; never married; no children.

Although born in Virginia in 1883, Belle Greene grew up and attended school in Princeton, New Jersey, where her mother moved after the breakup of her marriage. Unable to afford college, Greene went directly from school to her first job at the Princeton University library. It was there that she mastered the cataloguing system and gained experience at the reference desk. She also developed an interest in the rare book department, which brought her to the attention of Junius Spencer Morgan, a collector and the nephew of banker J. Pierpont Morgan, who was looking for someone to oversee his collection of rare books and manuscripts. On the recommendation of his nephew, J. Pierpont hired Greene in 1905, thus beginning her long association with the Morgan family.

Although just 21 years old, Greene hit it off splendidly with her boss whom she called "chief." From 1905 to 1907, she labored to bring order to Morgan's large and diverse collection, which at the time had just been moved to a library building on 36th Street in New York City. To help her sort, catalogue, and shelve the collection, Morgan had also hired Ada Thurston , an experienced bibliographer with whom Greene worked for the next 30 years.

Greene's receptive mind and forthright personality impressed Morgan, who put more and more trust in his young assistant. By 1908, she was traveling regularly to Europe as his agent, to seek out and purchase additions to the Morgan library. While abroad, Greene also worked diligently to increase her own knowledge of rare books and manuscripts, a pursuit in which she was assisted by her associations with Sydney Cockrell of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England, and later with Bernard Berenson in Italy.

Morgan's death in 1913 not only devastated Greene but left her career in limbo, as J.P. Morgan, Jr., showed little interest in his father's collection. As America entered the war in 1917, she threw herself into war work, and in 1919, when her brother-in-law was killed in action, Greene provided a home for her sister and her infant nephew. Upon her sister's remarriage, Greene legally adopted the boy and provided for his education. In 1920, when the younger Morgan became interested in the library, Greene once again resumed her research abroad.

In 1924, Morgan converted the library into an incorporated and endowed educational institution and named Greene its director. For the next 24 years, she worked to establish the library as a center for scholarly research. Publication and lecture programs were arranged and, in 1928, an annex was added for exhibitions. To those she deemed serious of purpose, Greene offered her valued assistance and enduring friendship.

Greene also continued her European trips, often accompanied by her nephew, until 1936, when her health began to fail. She retired from the library in November 1948. The following year, the staff and the library's new director, Frederick H. Adams, Jr., honored her with an exhibition recognizing the growth of the library and its collections under her directorship. At that time, a group of scholars and collectors began a festschrift ("a publication in her honor") which, unfortunately, was not completed before her death in May 1950. The volume, entitled Studies in Art and Literature for Belle da Costa Greene, was published by Princeton University Press in 1954.