Marilyn Monroe Photos by Lawrence Schiller On Show Next Month
Marilyn Monroe and Paula Strasberg, Something’s Got to Give, 20th Century Fox Studios, Los Angeles May 1962
To mark 100 years since Marilyn Monroe was born, The New York Historical presents a new exhibition on her life, career, and her lesser-known attempts to wrestle control of her legacy.
On display from November 20, 2026, through March 28, 2027, Marilyn Monroe Centennial: Photographs by Lawrence Schiller juxtaposes the star’s on-camera and off-camera persona with images taken by photojournalist Lawrence Schiller on two film sets, Let’s Make Love in 1960 and Monroe’s last and unfinished film Something’s Got to Give in 1962. This is followed by a play-by-play of the career milestones and wider film history that led to her becoming a cultural phenomenon. Monroe’s media intelligence and architecting of her image is further explored through her relationship with Life magazine, which draws from The Historical’s extensive Time Inc Archive.
“Marilyn Monroe remains the definition of an icon, a sparkling presence on screen and a powerful storyteller in her own right who fought against the forces of her time,” said Dr. Louise Mirrer, president and CEO, The New York Historical. “While it’s true that Marilyn Monroe experienced great adversity and exploitation in her time, she also displayed remarkable resilience, sharp instincts, and physical mastery to ensure the camera captured her to her best advantage. This exhibition attempts to showcase that agency through Lawrence Schiller’s exceptional photography, enlightening personal stories, and archival analysis drawn from our extensive collections.”
Lawrence Schiller added: “Marilyn had shown me what other photographers who had shot her knew, that when she turned herself on to the camera, the photographer didn’t have to be more than a mechanic. It was almost as if she were both the shooter and the subject.”
On display are a series of photographs Schiller took during production of the unreleased film Something’s Got to Give, in which, on a closed set, Monroe spontaneously decided to remove the light nude-colored bikini bottoms she had been given and resurface naked. The images of Monroe from the pool scene appeared on magazine covers in over 30 countries, including on the cover of Life magazine.
Additional photographs by Schiller on display offer a rare window onto several themes that marked Monroe’s 16-year, 30-film career in Hollywood including her struggles to be recognized as a serious actor, her relationship with acting coaches Lee and Paula Strasberg (seen on set with Monroe at a time when Paula was likely Blacklisted in Hollywood), and her attempts to seize control of her power and become one of the first women in Hollywood to establish her own production company in defiance of the studio system.
Schiller also saw Monroe on the morning of August 4, 1962, the day she died at the age of 36. They had discussed an up-and-coming photo session. The commemorative issue of Life published shortly after her death is on view later in the exhibition featuring one of Schiller’s photographs on its cover.
Schiller’s work is accompanied by the wider context of how Monroe built her career, illustrated with ephemera and print magazines drawn from the extensive collections of The Historical’s Patricia D. Klingenstein Library. Film clips, a contact sheet from Let’s Make Love marked up with Monroe’s final approval, and the well-known publicity photo from Niagara that inspired Andy Warhol’s Shot Sage Blue Marilyn painting will all be on display. The exhibition also features the invitation and program for the 1962 Democratic Party fundraiser at Madison Square Garden where Monroe famously sang Happy Birthday to President John F. Kennedy.
