The Morgan Garden Returns
Open Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from May 5 through October 29, 2023

New York, NY – The Morgan Garden reopens on Friday, May 5th. Visitors to the Morgan are able to enjoy the Garden with museum admission every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, through October 29, 2023. The Garden will also remain open during Free Friday Nights from 5-7pm every Friday evening.  

In June 2022, the Morgan completed the first comprehensive exterior restoration of the library that J. Pierpont Morgan commissioned from architect Charles Follen McKim. This American Renaissance masterpiece, completed in 1906, is the historic heart of the Morgan Library & Museum.

In conjunction with the restoration, the Morgan undertook site enhancements to reinvigorate the southern portion of its campus and provide visitor access to the grounds for the first time in the institution’s history. Developed by award-winning landscape designer Todd Longstaffe-Gowan, the Garden created an accessible route from the Morgan’s interior to the 36th Street site and a new, inviting space for events, programs, and relaxation.

The Garden’s design includes the introduction of periwinkle beds flanking the Library’s loggia and colorful, low-height herbaceous beds. A generous grass lawn sweeps out from the modern pavilion next to the Library, bordering the latter and the Annex. Bluestone pathways are laid in patterns derived from the Library’s Renaissance-inspired floors, and cobbled stonework adds visual and textural interest. The garden also displays several antiquities from the Morgan’s collection that have previously been inaccessible to the public.

New lighting enhances the building’s presence at night. Linnaea Tillett Lighting Design Associates developed a scheme that includes the relighting of the historic lantern in the Library’s loggia. Tillett’s design bathes the Library and garden in soft “moonlight” and highlights distinctive features of the building and landscape. Details on special Garden programs and installations are highlighted below. 

To learn more about the Garden's development, click here.

Nora Thompson Dean: Lenape Teacher and Herbalist | Opening June 6

An exhibition in the Rotunda of the 1906 Library and an installation in the Morgan Garden, developed collaboratively with the Lenape Center and Hudson Valley Farm Hub, honors Nora Thompson Dean (1907–1984), a Lenape teacher and herbalist who worked to preserve Lenape culture. Born and raised in Oklahoma, Dean made multiple influential visits to Lenapehoking, the ancestral lands of the Lenape (an area that now encompasses New Jersey and sections of New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Connecticut). The exhibition, incorporating letters, photographs, and printed materials, sheds light on different aspects of Nora Thompson Dean's life and teaching and also includes an installation of plants important to the Lenape in the Morgan Garden, including corn, squash, and beans.

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Spring Family Fair | Sunday, May 7, 2:00-4:00PM
 

Join us for our Annual Spring Family Fair! Celebrate the spring season with the reopening of the Morgan Garden and enjoy crafts, live music, and readings themed to our current exhibitions. All activities are free with museum admission. The Morgan is free to children twelve and under.

Visit the Welcome Table to sign up for the family raffle of Morgan Shop books. The raffle drawing will take place at 3:55pm in the Gilbert Court. Free Morgan tote bags will go to the first 100 families to sign up for the raffle. Limit one tote bag per family.

Family Activities

• How Does Your Garden Grow?… Create your own garden with rainbow scratch paper and springtime stencil designs.
• Venetian Glass Butterflies: Design a tissue paper suncatcher to dazzle your windows all season.
• Write On! On the Morgan’s Poetry Wall, write your own unique verses.
• Head in the Hole: Get into character, literally, as J. Pierpont Morgan or the museum’s first director, Belle da Costa Greene, using our head-in-the-hole board created by artist Pam Koehler.
• Ancient Animals: Scavenger Hunt: Prowl the Morgan Garden for beasts and birds inspired by ancient art.

Learn More