$10 million gift to library from Katharine J. Rayner

The Morgan Library & Museum announced the creation of a named directorship, made possible by a generous $ 10 million pledge from Katharine J. Rayner, Trustee of the Morgan since 2011. To recognize this extraordinary gift to the endowment, the position of Director at the Morgan will now be known as the Katharine J. Rayner Director for a period of twenty-five years. Dr. Colin B. Bailey, Director since 2015, is the first to hold this title.

This pledge has been made on the occasion of the Morgan’s 100th anniversary in 2024 and toward its Centennial Campaign, which seeks to raise $50 million in critical funds to strengthen the future of the institution’s collections, campus, and people.

The Morgan also announced a $5 million pledge to the Campaign from the Jerome L. Greene Foundation. This gift establishes an endowed fund to support Morgan’s acclaimed exhibition program. It builds on several previous exhibition sponsorships by the JL Greene

Foundation, including Treasures from the Nationalmuseum of Sweden: The Collections of Count Tessin (2017), Henry James and American Painting (2017), John Singer Sargent: Portraits in Charcoal (2019), and Georg Baselitz: Six Decades of Drawings (2022).

Board President Lawrence R. Ricciardi said, “This is a significant moment in Morgan’s history, and I am deeply grateful to Katharine Rayner, my fellow Trustees, and our other major

donors for their vision and dedication to the Centennial Campaign. These important gifts mark a momentous step forward for the institution.”

Colin B. Bailey, Katharine J. Rayner Director, said, “Over the past century, with the support of generations of Trustees, the Morgan has expanded its collections and collecting areas, while keeping faith with the imagination and vision of our founders to make our holdings available and accessible to the widest possible audience. The Morgan has evolved into one of New York’s most beloved cultural destinations, and these generous gifts allow us to continue this work, move forward with confidence, and bolster our long-term financial health.”

A museum and independent research library located in the heart of New York City, the Morgan Library & Museum began as the personal library of financier, collector, and cultural benefactor J. Pierpont Morgan.

The Morgan offers the public close encounters with great works of human accomplishment in a setting treasured for its intimate scale and historic significance. Its collection of manuscripts, rare books, music, drawings, and works of art comprises a unique and dynamic record of civilization, as well as an incomparable repository of ideas and of the creative process from 4000 BC to the present.

The Jerome L. Greene Foundation supports select programs that significantly impact the lives of all New Yorkers. Its more than forty-year history is grounded in its founder’s visionIts more than forty-year history is grounded in the vision of its founder to give back to the city he loved.

Today the Foundation honors this commitment by continuing to fund quality programs and by identifying new ways to increase access to the arts.