ABSTRACT
In the mid-1930s two or three of us who were graduate students in the School of Library Service at Columbia University amused ourselves by walking down the block off Madison Avenue to catch a glimpse of the Irish guards who were responsible for the security of the Pierpont Morgan Library. Those guards, easily identified by their black suits and bowler hats, marched solemnly round and round the building apparently without letup. The building itself was formidable, and in those days it was very difficult for any but a chosen few to use its hallowed reading rooms, or even to visit the marbled hall where stunning displays were shown of the riches that Morgan had accumulated in the throes of an unparalleled collecting career.
