Gothic Revival Library, 1859. American. Gift of Mrs. Hamilton Fish, 1977 (Inst. 1977.7.1).

Morningside, the house from which the Gothic Revival library was removed, is a strongly massed yet graceful two-and-one-half story red-brick structure. Its peaked roofline is decorated with boldly carved verge boards (a wide board projecting over the gable of a roof, pierced with ornamental patterns) and Ruskinian stone-and-brick voussoirs (tapering or wedge-shaped elements that form an arch) topping the pointed-arch windows. The library, parlor, dining room, and kitchen area were on the main floor; the bedrooms were on the upper floors.

The Gothic Revival style was considered particularly appropriate for libraries, and even houses that did not have Gothic exteriors had libraries decorated in the style. The style had been fashionable in England for decades before the first truly Gothic Revival house was built in the United States. Some of the objects in this room hail from England; others were made in New York in the 1850s and 1860s. The English pieces, such as the mantel clock of about 1845 by H. Smith of York and the bread plate designed by A. W. N. Pugin and manufactured by Minton and Company in Stoke-on-Trent, serve as reminders of Withers's roots as well as the profound influence English Gothic Revival exerted on American design. The English poets Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning are memorialized in the delicately modeled sculpture of their clasped hands created by the American sculptor Harriet Hosmer.

Although the furniture is not original to the room, it is appropriate as far as date and place of manufacture and has been selected and arranged following design manuals by A. J. Downing and others. The tracery-back armchair and octagonal table, both made by New York cabinetmakers between the early 1850s and the mid-1860s, illustrate various interpretations of the style. The majority of the pieces are oak or walnut, the two woods most commonly used for Gothic Revival furniture and interiors. In addition to detailing taken from Gothic architecture, such as trefoils and clustered columns, Gothic Revival furniture is frequently embellished with oak-leaf motifs, such as those carved into the cornices of the library's two bookcases. The Gothic-style cast-iron grate in the fireplace was probably made in the Albany, New York, area. The solar lamp from Philadelphia also reflects Gothic architectural features in the intricate design of the gilt base and the pointed-arch motif in the glass globe.