Belle da Costa Greene, Book History, Race, and Medieval Studies

Linking both Harris’s opening to “Whiteness as Property” and Kendall’s opening in Hood Feminism to reexamine and position the details of Belle da Costa Greene’s family and her mother’s decision to move herself and her children across the color line, this essay situates Greene, her family, her career, and her personal book collection in contrast to her roles as the first librarian, first director, and person-in-charge of the acquisitions and the shapings of the Pierpont Morgan library. The article first discusses the complexities of “White Heritage as Property” and considers how manuscript and rare books collecting is another way to make white supremacist monuments of the “western civilization” past. The second part of the article addresses Belle da Costa Greene’s personal manuscript collection, her formulation of herself in relation to Black Orientalism, and the practices of manuscript cataloging. Finally, the essay ends with an argument about how we can make racial and social reparations through various means, including manuscript cataloging, in order to do justice to Belle da Costa Greene’s work and professional importance.