Whether the Frankenstein monster can or cannot be killed is still debated among movie fans, raising the possibility that it will live forever. But one thing is certain: As of 2018, the creature has reached the ripe old age of 200 and shows no signs of going away soon. Mary Shelley’s original novel was published on January 1, 1818. Accordingly, the 200th anniversary of Frankenstein is currently being celebrated around the world. The crown jewel of these celebrations is the exhibition It’s Alive: ‘Frankenstein’ at 200 at New York’s Morgan Library, which runs through January 27, 2019. Without setting out to be, the exhibition is a kind of tribute to the entertainment world and can teach us a valuable lesson about culture—the way that high art grows out of and can in turn influence commercial culture, even the mass media.

This is probably the most comprehensive exhibition about Frankenstein ever mounted, running the gamut from a copy of the 1818 first edition to the gruesome model for Robert De Niro’s makeup as the monster in Kenneth Branagh’s 1994 film version of the story. The exhibition is beautifully curated and genuinely thought-provoking. It has a grand narrative sweep, telling the story of the novel’s creation and chronicling its theatrical reincarnations, together with its spread to other popular forms of entertainment. One has to marvel at the way a novel written by a then-unknown teenager went on to conquer the world and achieve a protracted afterlife on stage, screen, and television.