Exploring The Catcher in the Rye   :   album / tour   :   Waiting for Phoebe (or Maps)

 

Portion of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

 
[map of MET] The museum is huge and full of treasures: the portion shown on this map represents maybe one twelfth of the galleries. Museums in the U.S. don't require payment to enter, but it is customary to pay the recommended donation ($10 is the MET's suggested price). It sounds like Holden and company made a quick visit without paying.

I didn't take photos of exhibits because their policy forbids photos taken for non-private use. Relatedly, I didn't see any "fuck you" signs in the museum. However, in the temple of Dendur, I noticed that, carved into the ancient monument stones, were some names and dates of the European explorer's. I found that similarly disrespecful. I mean, the explorers seemed to think they had a right to deface these monuments which took their builders centuries to build.

More notes on the map:
The entrance faces Fifth Avenue. It has a lot of stone stairs leading up to it. Here is a photo (off site: http://www.theinsider.com/nyc/photos/metmus1.htm).

The coat check areas (p. 207) are picked out in pink. (I didn't notice them on the map until I got home. I would have taken a picture of one if had realized that they were around the corners from the entrance.)
There is a rest room nearby the Egyptian Art section (p. 204).
The section picked out in a sand color is the Egyptian Art section, which includes the mummies and partially rebuilt tombs. In the upper right hand corner of the map is part of the "Temple of Dendur" area, which looks like a new Egyptian Art section that Holden and the boys would not have known. (Pages 202-4.)

John Rager wrote me, remembering the layout from the 1960's:

"The entire Egyptian section of the museum has been substantially redone since the time of the novel … The narrow passageway (to the mummies) described by Salinger no longer exists. I believe that the cloakrooms are in the same place that they were before the renovation, but I'm not even sure of that. They do not look the same. … the floor layout of the [Egyptian] exhibit is very different now, and the Temple of Dendur courtyard (in the glass) was not there … (The Temple of Dendur was a gift from Egypt for help in saving the artifacts that are now under the lake behind the Aswan High dam. The major renovations of the Sackler wing took place in the 80s, if I remember correctly. There was a fair amount of building in the 80s and 90s.) The great entrance hall has been renovated, but not changed much - the store which is off the lobby was not there before, for example. … the cloakrooms were redone but I think they are in the same place."

MET's Web site: http://www.metmuseum.org