Charles Morgan has served on the board of the Morgan Library & Museum for 45 years, and he’s known the place longer than that: He was born there.

So Mr. Morgan and other trustees, such as Diane Nixon, Annette de la Renta, Baroness Mariuccia Zerilli-Marimo, gala chairwoman Susanna Borghese, and S. Parker Gilbert, have seen their share of changes at the institution. Earlier this year, a new director, William Griswold, arrived (though he looks a lot like the old director). Most noticeably, perhaps, is the dramatic expansion by architect Renzo Piano, which was completed two years ago.

Change can bring on a yearning for the past, and that certainly seemed the case at the Morgan’s gala on Monday. The invitation called for “Dinner and Dancing in celebration of J. Pierpont Morgan and the Gilded Age.”

“Gilded? I’m more in the silver age tonight,” decorator Ann Pyne said, referring to her dress. “Guilty? I’m not guilty,” the husband of a member of the Ladies Committee, Fred Krimendahl, said.

The Morgan did try to get its 180 guests in a gilded mood, beyond installing them in their granded Gilded Age rooms, such as the library. Dinner included foie gras and saddle of spring lamb, mint jelly, and new potatoes persillées, and the dinner tables were named after popular women of the Gilded Age: Mary Pickford, Lillian Gish, Helen Keller, Elise de Wolf, Willa Cather, and Marjorie Merriweather Post.

agordon@nysun.com