J. P. Morgan, Jr.

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John Pierpont Morgan, Jr. (September 7, 1867 — September 7, 1943) was an American financier. He was born in New York City and graduated from Harvard in 1886, where he was a member of Delta Phi. Upon his father's death in 1913, he inherited the major portion of his great fortune.

He took a prominent part in the financial aspects of the World War I. Following its outbreak, he made the first loan of $12,000,000 to Russia. In 1915, a loan of $50,000,000 was made to the French Government. All of the munitions purchased in the United States by the British were made through one of his firms. Mr. Morgan organized a syndicate of about 2200 banks and floated a loan of $500,000,000 to the Allies. After the war, he made several trips to Europe to investigate and report on financial conditions there. Morgan was shot and slightly wounded by a war-crazed fanatic in July, 1915.

He resembled his father in his dislike for publicity and in continuing his father's philanthropic policy. In 1920 he gave his London residence to the U.S. government for use as its embassy and later created the Pierpont Morgan Library as a public institution in 1924 as a memorial to his father. Belle da Costa Greene, J.P. Morgan's personal librarian, became the first director and continued the aggressive acquisition and expansion of the collections of illuminated manuscripts, authors' original manuscripts, incunabula, prints, and drawings, early printed Bibles, and many examples of fine bookbinding. Today the library is a complex of buildings which serve as a museum and scholarly research center.