Chaletmomma

I enjoyed wonderful visit to The Morgan Library & Museum with my sister. We started our visit at the Morgan Cafe’. The atmosphere, food and wine were all delightful. We enjoyed Hummus with hand-made chips, my sister a BLT and I the Za’atar Spiced Blue Crab Cobb salad - so delicious.

**The Ceiling on our way to the rotating exhibit area**

The magnificent ceiling on our way to the Beatrix Potter: Drawn to Nature exhibit which closed June 9th.

I was dumbstruck by Beatrix’s talent. The light from the candle in the below illuminated the room perfectly in this panel from Peter Cottontail.

**This image was taken in 1930 of the annex**

We went upstairs and toured the exhibit: Walton Ford: Birds and Beasts of the Studio which runs through October 20, 2024.

We retraced our steps to enter the original part of the building.

Look at this door!

We turned right and entered The West Room - with J.Peirpont Morgan’s desk and the Vault, then walked into the Rotunda and onto The East Room and finally The North Room.

**Cast of Washington’s face made from life is in the rotunda**

The East Room is breathtaking and three stories of bookshelves. I took over 100 images in the library and about 20 were of this room.

A few of the treasures - including one of the three Gutenberg Bibles the Morgan has in it’s collection. I also loved looking at the varied book titles.

Belle de Costa Greene (1879-1950) has been the subject of a work of historical fiction by Marie Benedict The Personal Librarian which I read and it peaked my interest in both her and the Library. She ran the Morgan Library for forty-three years starting in 1905. In the beginning she was the private librarian for J. Pierpont Morgan and then his son, Jack, and later as the first director of the Pierpont Morgan Library (now the Morgan Library & Museum). She is an extremely interesting person - she was a woman in what was a man’s field and she was also passing for white. I was so excited to learn an exhibition dedicated to her - Belle de Costa Greene: A Librarian’s Legacy will run October 25, 2024 - May 4, 2025. I also found an upcoming book will be released October 29, 2024 Belle da Costa Greene: A Librarian’s Legacy.

The North Room was Ms. Greene’s office. Look at the ceiling!

I couldn’t believe it took me so long to visit since it’s located in mid-town at 225 Madison Ave & 36th. I highly recommend a visit!

Til next time be well and I’ll see you over on Instagram!

Recently I visited Washington, D.C. with my sister for a family celebration. We managed to sneak in a bit of time to tour the National Gallery of Art and Mount Vernon.

We only had an hour at the National Gallery of Art. We chose to visit the West Building. We quickly made our way through an incredible collection of Furniture to the Impressionists, then we viewed the Leonardo da Vinci, Ginevra de' Benci and finished with the Dutch Masters. Both the art and the buildings architecture were equally enjoyable.

Sunday we headed out of DC to Mount Vernon.

I hadn’t been to Mount Vernon since I was quite little maybe 5 years old. I was super excited!

When we purchased our tickets we picked the timed option for the Mansion Tour. I would suggest allowing at minimum 20 mins at the Ford Orientation Center prior to your tour time to get acclimated, look around and make sure staff reviews your ticket. We paid for Guidebooks we didn’t receive. Then we made the 10 min walk to the Mansion entrance line. We didn’t understand we would not be reentering this building. After your tour you are led to the Donald W. Reynolds Museum and Education Center - which you should allow time to visit. Our schedule was getting tight once we were done touring the grounds and we quickly made our way to the Food Court and Shops before heading home.

We were on property for 3 hours but, easily could have been for 4 or more.

A Brief History

1674: The property was granted to George Washington's great-grandfather, John Washington, by King Charles II of England. John Washington and his friend Nicholas Spencer were awarded a 5,000-acre land consisting of the peninsula in the Potomac River, bordered by Dogue Run and Little Hunting Creek. The land would be divided equally between Washington and Spencer, but the entirety of the land would one day become Mount Vernon.

1698: Tenants living at what was then Little Hunting Creek Plantation.

1726: George’s father Augustine Washington acquires the property from his sister.

1734: Augustine Washington resides at Hunting Creek Plantation with his second wife Mary and children including George. The home is a story and a 1/2 in height with 4 rooms of equal size off of a central hall. This is still the center-most part of Mount Vernon.

1754: George leases Mount Vernon from his half-brother Lawrence’s widow. The structure was continually modified and added to until 1787.

Mount Vernon website has amazing images and a virtual tour.

The New room is currently closed to visitors for preservation work. The Mount Vernon Ladies Association has been maintaining the Mount Vernon Estate since they acquired it from the Washington family in 1858.

**The New room is closed. this image is from their website.**

Green paint was very expensive and was made with copper. This let guests know you are very wealthy. Notice the woodwork is painted as well.

We were told the fact that George and Martha always had visitors and had not eaten dinner by themselves for 20yrs.

We learned the meal schedule at Mount Vernon: Breakfast at 7am, Formal Dinner at 3pm and Tea at 6:30pm and often times tea was taken in the bedroom. This is why we see dining chairs in the sleeping chambers.

**Garret Bedchamber on the 3rd Floor Where Martha moved after George’s death**

So many blooms; the Irises, Peonies and Snapdragons were beautiful.

The Shops at Mount Vernon had a variety of wonderful treasures.

Both my sister and I came home from the weekend with a post card of the van Gogh painting Green Wheat Fields, Auvers and a copy of the Guide Book. The snafu of our buying them twice has been rectified. This little book packs a ton of details and I highly recommend. You can also purchase on-line.

If you have a trip planned to the area I highly recommend visiting both. Til next time friends be well and I’ll see you over on the Gram!