The true story of a famed librarian and the secret she guarded closely

Belle da Costa Greene in 1929. Library of Congress hide caption

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Library of Congress

The name Belle da Costa Greene might not ring a bell, but New York's historic Morgan Library and Museum is trying to change that.

A new exhibit called "A Librarian's Legacy" opened this month, just in time for the Morgan's 100th anniversary. It traces Greene's life and her lasting influence as the library's first director.

It was an unusually prominent role for a woman at the time — a Black woman who chose to pass as white to survive in a highly segregated America.

Changing the family name

Greene was appointed the director and inaugural librarian of the Morgan, which was founded by J. Pierpont Morgan — the American financier.

During her tenure, she collected parts of the Crusader Bible, medieval works, historic manuscripts and more. But it was how Greene lived her life beyond the library walls that may ignite deeper curiosity among exhibit goers.

According to exhibit curator Erica Ciallela, the decision to pass as a white woman wasn’t entirely Greene’s own.

“It was really spearheaded by her mother, Genevieve, who not only made the decision for Belle Greene and her siblings to pass, but did it fairly early on when Greene was still in school,” Ciallela told All Things Considered.

The decision came after Greene’s mother, Genevieve Ida Fleet Greener, separated from Belle’s father, Richard T. Greener, the first Black graduate of Harvard College, in the 1890s.

At the time, the then-named Greeners lived in Washington, D.C.’s Black high society. After the separation, Genevieve dropped the last letter of their family name and was lighter-skinned enough to pass as white, as were Greene’s siblings.

This opened doors for Belle da Costa Greene in segregated America, and she worked at Princeton before joining the research library. There she met a cousin of J. Pierpont Morgan, who at the time was looking for someone to organize his growing collection.

“The interview went amazingly, as we can all imagine,” Ciallela said. “And in 1905, she began working for Pierpont Morgan as his librarian, cataloging his collection and eventually starting this amazing building that we have and are celebrating still today.”

Attention from the newspapers

Being a woman librarian and director of a major institution was a big deal at the time. Greene was able to achieve what most women could not, especially during a time when they had just gotten the right to vote.

It wasn’t unheard of for Greene to be one of only two women on auction floors, and the position made her known in collector circles. It also made her a feature in newspapers and other reports. Greene’s face was seen globally and she was photographed often and shown in trade publications for rare book collectors.

“We do know that newspaper reporters always would notice her complexion. They would always point out her dark hair or her wild hair or their darker skin color,” Ciallela said.

Yet there is no record of Greene’s thoughts about passing as a white woman. Before she died in 1950, she burned her 10-volume journals and diaries.

Ciallela said Greene “wrote things down that she dare not even think to herself” in those journals. She also slowly retreated from public view as she aged, and as her natural features became more pronounced, Ciallela said.

Exhibit attendees may never truly know why Greene chose to pass as white, but the Morgan Library’s exhibit describes how her legacy spans generations and ripples through libraries today.

“She loved being a librarian. That was her essence,” Ciallela said. “She was so proud of everything she was building here and she created a family with this staff here. And so I really think that her work kept her moving forward and kept her eyes on, you know, ‘I might be hiding this portion of myself, but the world gets to see all of this other stuff that I am accomplishing.’”

“A Librarian’s Legacy” will run until May 4, 2025, and include a walk through Greene’s early life in Washington, D.C. This is new research, Ciallela said, and ties in the librarian’s roots with the continual tradition of Black librarians in the United States.

The interview with Erica Ciallela was conducted by Ailsa Chang, produced by Jordan-Marie Smith and edited by Jeanette Woods.