I don’t have kids -- at least yet (and I am pushing the big 50 in a year and a 1/4!) so I took my favorite teenager to the Morgan. We looked at the various portraits of Shakespeare and front and center is the one of him as a young man with the Latin “Principum Amictias” which I took and used to lampoon Mike Bloomberg in my art poster protesting his third term!
She had never been to the Morgan before so I showed her J. P. Morgan’s library. I asked the guard to tell her about the hidden passage ways in the book shelved walls! The ceilings alone in the central library room are breath taking with mythological imagery and astrological symbology as well.
I showed her letters hand written by George Washington, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson as well as a mask of George Washington’s face. We looked at the back and say the artist’s signature. They have copies of the mask of George Washington face for sale in the book store but I don’t think they sell many!
We looked at the exhibitions of journals of Albert Einstein which my young friend found fascinating as well as John Steinbeck, Tennessee Williams, Nathaniel Hawthorne and there were many more including an art pad showing Bob Dylan’s artistry.
It was so wonderful to see a teenager’s eyes open with excitement and enthusiasm. Great fun!
