The Greene Family Being Arecord of the Ancestry
I recently came across a pair of letters that shed new light on the youth and education of the Morgan'southward inaugural Director, Belle da Costa Greene (1879–1950). On July 1, 1896, the philanthropist and social welfare advocate Grace Hoadley Dodge (1856–1914) wrote to Emma Charlotte Revell Moody (1843–1903), wife of Dwight Lyman Moody (1837–1899), an evangelist preacher and founder of Northfield Seminary for Immature Ladies, in Massachusetts:
I write even in the midst of this busy time to tell you of a girl I much want at Northfield[.] She is Belle Greene and her Mother has made formal application through Miss Hall – The family unit has a pitiful history[.] The Mother was a Mt Holyoke Graduate, a teacher – She married a human, with Spanish Cuban + Negro blood a lawyer who graduated at the top of his form at Harvard: He turned out clever simply bad and later on terrible experiences she left him + has been supporting her five children with terrible struggle – Belle is brilliant, quick to acquire, easily influenced[,] full of fun + energy – She has been employed every bit helper in the Office of Teachers College but we realize that she should go away from N.Y. and be under strong Christian influence – While the trace of Negro blood is noticeable Belle has always associated intimately with the best course of white girls + at the Higher was a swell favorite with many[,] being entertained past them + going out with them – The Mother wants to make the girl a true noble woman + she has qualities for such if nether such influence as Northfield – I will pay for her, and am about anxious that she be accepted – Is there any hope for her – The Female parent, of class is white with good beginnings, and Belle inherits brains + power – Trusting that the work is being abundantly blest at dear Northfield + thanking you for all you will practice for Belle
Grace H. Dodge to Mrs. Moody, 1 July 1896. Courtesy Northfield Mount Hermon Archives.
The following day, Emma Moody wrote to Evelyn Sarah Hall (1855–1911), Northfield's Primary, relaying Contrivance'southward asking:
I received a letter of the alphabet from Grace Dodge today which I enclose to y'all[.] I am sorry to ship this to you in your residue only it is of import + Mr Moody wants the girl received unless in that location is with you something very seriously against the daughter that you may know of. Mr Moody wants to go on the Dodges in impact with the seminary as they take given much to the work here.
Emma C. Moody to Miss Hall, 2 July 1896. Courtesy Northfield Mount Hermon Archives.
These newly discovered documents have far-reaching implications.
Hall granted Moody'south request, and Greene attended Northfield for three years, although she left before graduating, as most girls at the fourth dimension seem to have done. What Greene studied and with whom remains to be investigated, just the subjects she pursued and the network that she built there are sure to prove fascinating. The Contrivance letter as well reveals that earlier attending Northfield, Greene worked in "the office" of Teachers College, which she has oft – erroneously – been thought to have attended.
The letters also shed important lite on Belle Greene's parents, particularly her female parent, Genevieve Ida Fleet (1849–1941). Born in Washington D.C., to James H. Fleet and Hermione (née Peters), Fleet does not seem to have attended Mount Holyoke, as claimed in the first letter. Instead, like her future husband, Richard T. Greener (1844–1922), she attended Oberlin'south two-year higher preparatory program in the 1860s, though she and Greener did not overlap there.
By the time these letters were written, Belle Greene'due south parents had already separated. This was a full two years earlier President William McKinley appointed Greener to a consular post in Vladivostok, proving that his departure for Russia did not precipitate the family's breakup, as previously thought.
Equally Grace Dodge's alphabetic character also makes clear, past 1896 Greene'due south mother had already changed her ain last proper name, and that of her children, from Greener to Greene, and was actively passing equally white. From then on, the Greenes identified themselves every bit being of Portuguese descent, with Belle adopting the middle proper name "da Costa," her older blood brother Russell, "de Costa," while Genevieve took a Dutch middle proper name, "van Vliet," possibly considering it sounded like her maiden name "Fleet." All passed as white, a facet of Greene's identity first uncovered past Jean Strouse, writer of Morgan: American Financier.
What is perhaps well-nigh striking nigh the letters, however, is that Richard T. Greener'south identity, equally both a lawyer and the first Black graduate of Harvard Higher in 1870 was known to Dodge. This was a office of the family unit's mixed-race past that both Belle Greene and her mother actively sought to obfuscate in public records. Genevieve Greene is listed as a widow, for case, in the 1900 census, and Belle Greene's passport applications from the 1910s, list her begetter equally deceased, although he lived until 1922.
It is extremely suggestive that Grace Dodge was in possession of this knowledge. A trustee of Teachers Higher, where she and Belle Greene probably showtime crossed paths when the latter was employed there, Dodge was both a member of J. Pierpont Morgan's social world and likewise his neighbor. As Dodge's letterhead indicates, in 1896 she lived at 262 Madison Artery, merely a few blocks uptown from where the Morgan Library & Museum stands today. In fact, her grandparents had lived in the townhouse that originally stood at 225 Madison Avenue (the address of the Morgan today), immediately next to Morgan's own home. Neither townhouse now exists: in 1903, Morgan purchased the Dodge house, but to tear it downwardly in society to create infinite for a garden, and his own house was demolished in the 1920s in order to construct the Annex Building (at the corner of Madison and Thirty-6th Street). Given their concrete proximity and the fact that Dodge and Morgan traveled in the aforementioned close-knit social circles, information technology seems more than likely that Morgan himself was aware of Greene's closely-guarded family unit history. That this, if true, does not seem to accept affected his high regard for her, manifested in hiring her as his personal librarian and authorizing her to spend large sums to buy items for his collection, suggests that he cared more than for ability than ancestry.
This Rotograph postcard shows the three townhouses that originally faced Madison Avenue between 30-Sixth and Thirty-Seventh Streets. Museum of the City of New York, M3Y45092.
In addition to revealing new biographical facts and giving us a deeper agreement of Belle Greene'southward formative years, including the educational experiences that led to her career every bit one of the nation's leading librarian-scholars, the letters have opened many new avenues of research that I am now pursuing1.
Daria Rose Foner
Inquiry Associate to the Director
The Morgan Library & Museum
- I am grateful to Peter Weis, Archivist at Northfield, and Leslie Fields, Head of Athenaeum and Special Collections at Mountain Holyoke for their assistance. The latter confirmed that at that place is no record of Genevieve Ida Fleet having attended Mount Holyoke.
Source: https://www.themorgan.org/blog/new-light-belle-da-costa-greene
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