Uploaded October 2024 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Complementing the opening of the exhibition Belle da Costa Greene: A Librarian’s Legacy, this one-day scholarly symposium will bring together experts working on Belle Greene and/or the fields relevant to our understanding of her life and career, including African American history and literature, the history of museums and libraries, Medieval studies, art history, feminist bibliography, and book history.
As Belle Greene herself wrote in 1937, in one of her five-year reports on the Morgan’s activities, “Increased usefulness of the Library to the general public has been fostered through more frequent lectures and addresses by eminent authorities.” This symposium aims to bring together yet another group of “eminent authorities” in four panels/roundtables, following the great tradition of the lecture and conference series that Greene herself inaugurated at the Morgan so many years ago.
Schedule
Historical and Literary Perspectives on Racial Passing (9:15–10:45 AM)
Dr. Sterling L. Bland, Rutgers University-Newark
Dr. Julia Charles-Linen, Arizona State University
Dr. Dominique Jean-Louis, Center for Brooklyn History
Belle da Costa Greene and the History of Black Librarianship (11 AM–12:30 PM)
Tamar Evangelestia-Dougherty, Smithsonian Libraries and Archives
Rhonda Evans, LuEsther T. Mertz Library, New York Botanical Garden
Petrina Jackson, Arthur & Elizabeth Schlesinger Library, Harvard University
DeLisa Minor Harris, Fisk University
New Directions in the Study of Belle da Costa Greene (2:15–3:45 PM)
Dr. Heidi Ardizzone, author of An Illuminated Life: Belle da Costa Greene's Journey from Prejudice to Privilege
Erica Ciallela, Exhibition Project Coordinator - Belle da Costa Greene, Morgan Library & Museum
Dr. Anne-Marie Eze, Houghton Library, Harvard University
Dr. Philip S. Palmer, Robert H. Taylor Curator and Department Head, Literary and Historical Manuscripts, Morgan Library & Museum
Jean Strouse, author of Morgan: American Financier
The Afterlives of Belle da Costa Greene (4–5:30 PM)
Dr. Sierra Lomuto, Rowan University
Dr. Kate Ozment, California State Polytechnic University-Pomona
Dr. Tracy Sharpley-Whiting, Vanderbilt University
Complementing the opening of the exhibition Belle da Costa Greene: A Librarian’s Legacy, this one-day scholarly symposium will bring together experts working on Belle Greene and/or the fields relevant to our understanding of her life and career, including African American history and literature, the history of museums and libraries, Medieval studies, art history, feminist bibliography, and book history.
As Belle Greene herself wrote in 1937, in one of her five-year reports on the Morgan’s activities, “Increased usefulness of the Library to the general public has been fostered through more frequent lectures and addresses by eminent authorities.” This symposium aims to bring together yet another group of “eminent authorities” in four panels/roundtables, following the great tradition of the lecture and conference series that Greene herself inaugurated at the Morgan so many years ago.
Schedule
Historical and Literary Perspectives on Racial Passing (9:15–10:45 AM)
Dr. Sterling L. Bland, Rutgers University-Newark
Dr. Julia Charles-Linen, Arizona State University
Dr. Dominique Jean-Louis, Center for Brooklyn History
Belle da Costa Greene and the History of Black Librarianship (11 AM–12:30 PM)
Tamar Evangelestia-Dougherty, Smithsonian Libraries and Archives
Rhonda Evans, LuEsther T. Mertz Library, New York Botanical Garden
Petrina Jackson, Arthur & Elizabeth Schlesinger Library, Harvard University
DeLisa Minor Harris, Fisk University
New Directions in the Study of Belle da Costa Greene (2:15–3:45 PM)
Dr. Heidi Ardizzone, author of An Illuminated Life: Belle da Costa Greene's Journey from Prejudice to Privilege
Erica Ciallela, Exhibition Project Coordinator - Belle da Costa Greene, Morgan Library & Museum
Dr. Anne-Marie Eze, Houghton Library, Harvard University
Dr. Philip S. Palmer, Robert H. Taylor Curator and Department Head, Literary and Historical Manuscripts, Morgan Library & Museum
Jean Strouse, author of Morgan: American Financier
The Afterlives of Belle da Costa Greene (4–5:30 PM)
Dr. Sierra Lomuto, Rowan University
Dr. Kate Ozment, California State Polytechnic University-Pomona
Dr. Tracy Sharpley-Whiting, Vanderbilt University
