Belle da Costa Greene: A life of power, passion, and self-invention

By Deborah W. Parker “Just Because I am a Librarian doesn’t mean I have to dress like one.” With this breezy pronouncement, Belle da Costa Greene handily differentiated herself from most librarians. She stood out for other reasons, too. In the early 20th century – a time when men held most positions of authority – Greene was a celebrated book agent, a curator and the first director of the Morgan Library. She also earned US$10,000 a year, about $280,000 today, while other librarians were making roughly $400. She was also a Black woman who passed as white. Born in 1879, Belle was the daughter of two light-skinned Black Americans, Genevieve Fleet and Richard T. Greener, the first Black man to graduate from Harvard. When the two separated in 1897, Fleet changed the family’s last name to Greene and, along with her five children, crossed the color line. Belle Marion Greener became Belle da Costa Greene – the “da Costa” a subtle claim to her Portuguese ancestry. One of the nine known portraits of Belle da Costa Greene that photographer Clarence H. White made in 1911. Biblioteca Berenson, I Tatti, the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies When banking magnate...