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J. P. Morgan

J. P. Morgan:J. P. Morgan
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J. P. Morgan

John Pierpont Morgan I (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and banker, who dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation.


Contents

Career to 1870

He was born in Hartford, Connecticut to Junius Spencer Morgan (1813–1890) and Juliet Pierpont (1816–1884) of Boston, Massachusetts. Junius was a prominent international banker who did much to open the U.S. to British investments and left at his death in 1890 a large fortune. He was partner of George Peabody and the founder of the house of J. S. Morgan & Co. in London. John Morgan was educated at the English High School of Boston, at a school in Vevey, Switzerland, and at the University of Göttingen. He entered banking in his father's London branch in 1856, moving to New York City the next year where he worked at the banking house of Duncan, Sherman & Company, the American representatives of George Peabody & Company. From 1860 to 1864, as J. Pierpont Morgan & Company, he acted as agent in New York for his father's firm. By 1864-71 he was a member of the firm of Dabney, Morgan & Company; in 1871 he partnered with with the Drexels of Philadelphia to form the New York firm of Drexel, Morgan & Company. In 1895 it became J. P. Morgan & Company, and retained close ties with Drexel & Company of Philadelphia, Morgan, Harjes & Company of Paris, and J. S. Morgan & Company (after 1910 Morgan, Grenfell & Company), of London. By 1900 it was one of the most powerful banking houses of the world, carrying through many deals especially reorganizations and consolidations. Morgan had many partners over the years, such George W. Perkins but remained in firm charge.[1]

Career after 1870

By the 1870s Morgan was deeply involved in financing railroads. He raised large sums in Europe but instead of just handing the funds over he helped the railroads reorganize and achieve greater efficiencies. He fought against the speculators interested in speculative profits, and built a vision of an integrated transportation system. In 1885 he reorganized the New York, West Shore & Buffalo Railroad, leasing it to the New York Central. In 1886 he reorganized the Philadelphia & Reading, and in 1888 the Chesapeake & Ohio. After Congress passed the Interstate Commerce Act in 1887, Morgan set up conferences in 1889 and 1890 that brought together railroad presidents in order to help the industry follow the new laws and write agreements for the maintenance of "public, reasonable, uniform and stable rates" The conferences were the first of their kind, and by creating a community of interest among competing lines paved the way for the great consolidations of the early 20th century.

Career after 1900

Family

Morgan was a lifelong member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and by 1890 was one of its most influential leaders.

In 1861, he married Amelia Sturges (1835–1862). After her death the next year, he married Frances Louise Tracy (1842–1924) on May 3, 1863 and they had the following children:

He lived the end of his life in Rome, where Morgan died on March 31, 1913. His remains were interred in the Cedar Hill Cemetery[1] in his birthplace of Hartford. His son, J. P. Morgan, Jr., inherited the banking business.

Legacy

His son, J. P. Morgan, Jr. took over the business at his father's death, but never was as influential. As required by the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act, the "House of Morgan" became three entities: 1) J.P. Morgan and Co. and its bank, Morgan Guaranty Trust; 2) Morgan Stanley, an investment house; and 3) Morgan Grenfell in London, an overseas securities house

Art and book collector

Morgan was a notable collector of books, pictures, and, other art objects, many loaned or given to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (of which he was president), and many housed in his London house and in his private library on 36th Street, near Madison Avenue in New York City. His son, J. P. Morgan, Jr., created the Pierpont Morgan Library in 1924 as a memorial to his father and kept Belle da Costa Greene, his father's private librarian, as its first director. [2]

Morgan was a benefactor of the American Museum of Natural History, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Groton School, Harvard University (especially its medical school), the Lying-in Hospital of the City of New York and the New York trade schools.

J. P. Morgan:Self-conscious about his rosacea, Morgan hated to be photographed.
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Self-conscious about his rosacea, Morgan hated to be photographed.

Morgan was also a patron to photographer Edward S. Curtis, offering Curtis $75,000 in 1906, for a series on the Native Americans. Curtis eventually published a 20-volume work entited "The North American Indian." [2]. Edward Curtis went on to produce a motion picture In The Land Of The head Hunters (1914), which was later restored in 1974 and re-released as In The Land Of The War Canoes. He was also famous for a 1911 Magic Lantern slide show; The Indian Picture Opera [3] which used his photos and original musical compositions by composer Henry F. Gilbert.

In 1900, Morgan financed inventor Nikola Tesla and his Wardenclyffe Tower with $150,000 for experiments in radio. Tesla was unsuccessful and, in 1904, Morgan pulled out.

Bibliography

  1. ^ Garraty, (1960)
  2. ^ Auchincloss (1990)

See also

Categories


1837 births | 1913 deaths | American art collectors | American bankers | American book and manuscript collectors | American financiers | American philanthropists | People in rail transport | People from Hartford, Connecticut | JPMorgan Chase

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