Harold Irving Pratt (February 1, 1877 – May 29, 1939) was an American oil industrialist and philanthropist. A director of Standard Oil of New Jersey, he also served on the Council of Foreign Relations from 1923-1939.
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He was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of oil industrialist Charles Pratt and Mary Helen Richardson. His brothers were Frederic B. Pratt, George Dupont Pratt, Herbert L. Pratt and John Teele Pratt; he was half-brother to Charles Millard Pratt.
Harold Pratt graduated from Amherst College.
Pratt became a director of Standard Oil of New Jersey, now ExxonMobil. Deeply interested in foreign affairs and issues dealing with global oil trade, he was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations from 1923–1939.
In terms of community activities, Pratt was president of the board of trustees of Brooklyn Hospital. After founding and endowing the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, he served as treasurer of the college.
In 1944, his widow, Harriet Barnes Pratt, donated the family's four-story mansion on the corner of 68th Street and Park Avenue to the CFR for use as its new headquarters. Named the Harold Pratt House, this continues to serve as the center for the CFR. The limestone-clad building was designed by Delano & Aldrich in the Beaux Arts style.
Welwyn, the family mansion also designed by Delano & Aldrich, was built in 1913 at Glen Cove, Long Island. The property is now owned and operated as the Nassau County Museum. The Holocaust Museum and Tolerance Center is located there. The estate's 204 acres (0.83 km2) of grounds, called Welwyn Preserve, have significant botanical interest, with more than 30 species of trees and 100 species of birds and small animals inhabiting the area.[1] This is part of the Atlantic Flyway for migrating species. The property includes coastal areas, with saltwater marsh and habitat, and fresh water creek. In addition, the beach is unusually sandy, as Pratt had the stones removed that were characteristic of the North Shore.
In 1900 Pratt donated a new natatorium (swimming pool complex) to Amherst College.
Pratt's son, Harold Irving Pratt Jr., had his portrait painted by the artist John Singer Sargent in 1924, when he was 20 years old. This artwork is now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
In World War II, a Liberty ship, number 3044, the Harold I. Pratt, was named in the senior man's honor.
Pratt married Harriet Barnes (1879–1969), a wealthy New York philanthropist, collector of Americana, and horticulturist.
Harriet Pratt served on several White House advisory committees on furnishings, from the Coolidge to the Truman administrations. In 1925, she was appointed by President Calvin Coolidge as chair of the first committee created to advise presidents and first ladies and make recommendations on White House acquisitions and decor. In 1941, through the concerted efforts of Mrs. Pratt, Eleanor Roosevelt agreed to the establishment of the Subcommittee upon Furniture and Furnishings and Gifts for State Rooms of the White House to be placed under the United States Commission of Fine Arts. Mrs. Pratt served as its chair and a member until 1947.
Children:
Pratt died at Glen Cove of pneumonia, on 29 May 1939.[2]