So, this past week, I took an intercity bus (after finding a great deal on Airbnb for a place to crash in) to see the
Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth exhibition at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York--more specifically, in Midtown Manhattan. The Morgan is a private research library which also features a number of galleries, and was originally the private collection of J. P. Morgan. This upscale origin quickly becomes apparent once you enter. For example, I sat down at a table in the lobby without realizing it was cafe seating, and was immediately handed a menu and wine list that
included such items as:
Ginger lemonade, $8
Glass of 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon from California, $19
Cheese and crackers, $14
Avocado toast, $18.50
Veggie burger with fries, $21
Needless to say, I felt rather out of place, but they'd let me in wearing jeans, so eh. The Tolkien exhibit is on the second floor; as soon as you get off the elevators, there's a round doorway to get into the gallery. The wall around said doorway is painted to resemble Tolkien's black and white drawing of the interior of Bag End. Several of Tolkien's full color illustrations are reproduced within the gallery as wall murals, which was a nice touch. The gallery itself was not terribly big, though they had a bunch of dividers and such to increase the available wall space. The items on display were generally either hung in frames or displayed under glass along the side of the wall. The one non-paper item on display--the robe Tolkien wore when receiving his honorary D.Litt degree in 1971--was in a freestanding case in the middle of the room.
I had seen copies of much of the material on display before, but seeing the original drawings, paintings, and manuscript pages in person, from just inches away, was something totally different. One of the first things I saw, near the entrance, were some of Tolkien's
First Age heraldic designs from the 1960s (the ones near the top of that page, not the Gondolin ones). I can't really put that initial feeling into words besides "wow"; I wouldn't expect the exhibit to have the same effect on everyone not deeply invested in Tolkien, but I figure people here can relate. One of the things that really struck me was just how small many of the originals were. Only a handful of items were on anything like A4/letter size or larger. The largest items were probably maps, though the
earliest Silmarillion map was surprisingly small (the words "Do not write on this margin" are there because the page came from a University of Leeds workbook).
Some of the minor pieces I hadn't seen before were really neat. They had a bunch of sketches and designs, some of them in color, that Tolkien drew on scraps of newspaper. They were cool enough on their own--Tolkien evidently contextualized some of them as Númenórean design patterns--though it was also fun trying to read the original newspaper text through and around the ink. They had a bunch of material from the Father Christmas Letters, some of which was new to me, though some can also be found online (presumably because it was included in the published version, which I don't have a copy of). There were a number of family photographs as well. Everything came with fairly detailed descriptive labels, which I didn't notice any errors in--not that I expected any, as I've heard nothing but good things about Catherine McIlwaine's work.
I spent about an hour in the exhibit, though I didn't spend as much time with some of the items in the back as I might have liked, since it was getting crowded and a loud (and not super-great) tour guide showed up with a large group. Otherwise, everyone spoke in hushed and at times reverent voices. It was a really special experience, all the more so since the vast majority of my engagement with Tolkien has been online or else solitary (though I wasn't traveling with anyone I know on this trip). Also, it turns out the Morgan is only a short walk away from the main branch of the New York Public Library, so on a whim I decided to see their exhibition about the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots--and I didn't have to pay $22 to get in the door for that one.
The Tolkien exhibit is at the Morgan until May 12 and will next be shown in Paris at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, starting in October. I definitely recommend visiting to anyone who can make it. I've seen this described as a once-in-a-generation event and it could very well be a long time before something like this, featuring material from so many different collections, is brought together again. It makes me want to visit the Tolkien collections at Oxford or Marquette even more, though who knows when--if ever--that'll be in the cards for me. In any event, I'm very glad I was able to see this. To be honest, I've been pretty worn down lately and didn't really feel up to traveling, but I would've regretted letting this opportunity pass by.
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