Evening star., 1924-12-08
By The AyyO,ysted Press

NEW YORK. December S.-The
/ choicest of the Pierpont Morgan Ii
/ brary's original manuscripts and
/ drawings by British authors will he
offered for public view in the main
exhibition hall OF the New York Pub
! lie Library today.
! For this occasion. which viii mark
! the first general public showing of
) many works that are considered al
| most priceless. j. =. Morgan himself
Of the display.
The exhibition was arranged, how
! ever. by trustees to whom. for per
petuity as a memorial to his father,
! Mr.. Morgan last February decided the
/ $1,000. 600 collection founded by the
/ late Pierpont Morgan, and the mag
nidcient marble cdifice near the Nor
I gan family residence in the old Muir
/ ray Hill section, where the collection
! was housed.
Restrictions Necessary.
4 When the memorial was turned
I over to trustees and Mr.. Morgan
! waived all personal and legal rights
! to the property. l. was intended that
! the institution should be open for the
! use of scholars. But the public dis
! played such interest toward the
marble buildirC whose contents had
gates ihat il became necessar" 20 re
/ strict admission Ia accredited
scholars and bibfiophiles. for the
/ PRESENCE OF jostiiLg crowds threat
I 5ned the safety Of the collection.
/ Public curiosity continued, however.
until the trustees Of the memorial
: embarked upon q policy OF periodical
! ly exhibiting sections OF the Morgan
! library. n other public Institutions.
/ in display Of rare American manu-
scripts at the New York Public Lii
hrary last April ard May was the
/ first general public exhibition under
! the arrangement.
The present exhibition Will remain
on view until March /. II consists of
I original manuscripts. documents and
| letters Of $50 British authors. in
/ prose, poem and dra awing, displayed
! III half-hUndred cases and paneis
| All are catologucd in sequence. from
! William DuRbars fifteenth century
, manuscript London. Thou Art the
! I.ans's twentieth century lode 10
! Golf. and Rudyard Kipling's Verses
7 Written from Nichoison's Almanac of
! Twelve Sports"
Morgan Much Interested
For days while the collect on
| chosen by Mr.. Morgan was being
! transferred from the memorial. the
I financier has been a daily visitor to
! the public library. Attendants said he
] had spent an hour or two there each
I day, coming sometimes alone, some
/ times accompanied by a secretary to
assure himself that every specimen
, was going into its proper place prop
! e"ly identified and shown to best ad-
vantage.
! HE seems 10 enjoy himself i'm
I Yyh 10
! brary attendant. He always appears
I in hurry and heads stra ght for the
/ main exhibition hall. Few people
! seem TO know him, for it's seldom he's
ridors.''
That Mr.. Morgan had Inherited
| from his father an almost boyish
enthusiasm for rare manuscripts and
! drawings was evident to the small
| group of newspaper men whom he
conducted through the exhibition be-
fore 1T was thrown open to the public
L really think they're awfully
good he said. He explained that
the collection on display was small
| enough so that il could be shown at
| much better advantage than in the
Morgan library.
And he seemed to have memorized
the contents of each Of the docu-
1
! and in all manner of script, from the
moving signature Of Sir Thomas
More on the lease of his home, Crosby
Hall, in 1923. to the microseopi pen
| manship of Charlotte Bronte in the
nineteenth century employed upon
"Arthuriana, or Odds and Ends
Manuscript of Milton.
See, there is AIlton's manuscript
II, l. NfI
| the printer received it," explained
| Mr.. Morgan, as he stood upright,
| without glasses. while the news
\ papermen bent and peered 10 make
out the text of the dog-eared book
| that lay within a, case.
| Il say manuscript" continued the
| financler. Milton having been blind
at the time. lie dictated his work, and
this probably is the script of his
| sister Anne, or his secretary.
And here we have the original
| warrant which kept John Bunyan in
| the jug while he wrote Pilgrims
Progress Mr.. Morgan pointed to a
! heavily sealed document labelled
| warrant for the arrest and i'm
prisonmentt of John Bunyan at Bed
ford, March 4, 1874"
Some of the names most noted in
literature were represented by only a
few specimens; others by scores.
| There were John Dryden's panegyri-
cal poem, "Eleonora" dedicated to the
memory of the Countess of Abingdon;
| the original Essay on Human
Understanding, by John Locke;
| letter from Samuel Pepys to a
nephew and a book of Pepys' navy
office accounts; Sir Isaac Newton's
notes for coin and coinage; a letter,
in a disguised hand and signed with
| the alias Richard SIMPSON" in
which Jonathan Swift offered "Gulh-
yer's Travels to a hesitant publisher.
Life of Pope.
There were the "Life Of Alexander
Pope" by Samuel Johnson; letter in
| which DR.. Johnson described
journey with James Boswell, and
Boswelrs own letters recording i'm
pressions of DR.. Johnson. There was
Laurence Sterne's Memoranda left
with Mrs. Montague in case die
abroad" and a draft of "rThe Frag-
rent,' which became a scene in
"Tristram Shandy''; there were Alex
ander Popes Essay on Man" and 19
of his letters to Lady Mary Wortley
Montagu, leader of Londons famous
coterie of blue stockings; Thomas
Grays "Odes," the first book to be
printed by the Strawberry Press;
Edmund Burke's will, and a dozen Of