| J. P. Morgan, Jr. | |
|---|---|
| Born | September 7, 1867 Irvington, New York |
| Died | March 13, 1943 (aged 75) Boca Grande, Florida |
| Cause of death | stroke |
| Nationality | United States |
| Occupation | Financier |
| Religion | Episcopalian |
| Spouse | Jane Norton Grew (m. 1890–1925) |
| Children | Junius Spencer Morgan III Henry Sturgis Morgan |
John Pierpont "Jack" Morgan, Jr. (September 7, 1867 — March 13, 1943) was an American banker and philanthropist.[1]
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He was born on September 7, 1867 in Irvington, New York to John Pierpont Morgan, Sr. and Frances Louisa Tracy. He graduated from Harvard in 1886, where he was a member of the Delphic Club, formerly known as the Delta Phi, and Delta Kappa Epsilon. In 1890 Jack married Jane Norton Grew, daughter of Boston banker and mill owner Henry Sturgis Grew. She was the aunt of Henry Grew Crosby. The couple had four children: Junius Spencer Morgan III; Henry Sturgis Morgan, a founding partner of Morgan Stanley; Jane Norton Morgan Nichols and Frances Tracy Pennoyer.[2] When his father died in 1913, Jack inherited most of his great fortune. Morgan had a daughter named Alice.
He resembled his father in his dislike for publicity and continued his father's philanthropic policy. In 1905, his father acquired the bank Guaranty Trust as part of his efforts to consolidate New York City banking. After his father died in 1913 the bank became Jack's base.
Morgan played a prominent part in financing World War I. Following its outbreak, he made the first loan of $12,000,000 to Russia.[3] In 1915, a loan of $50,000,000 was made to France. The firm's involvement with British and French interests fueled charges the bank was conspiring to maneuver the United States into supporting the Allies in order to rescue its loans. By 1915 it became apparent the war was not going to end quickly, the company decided to forge formal relationships with France.[4] Those dealings became strained over the course of the war as a result of poor personal relations with French emissaries, relationships that were heightened in importance by the unexpected duration of the conflict, its costs, and the complications flowing from American neutrality. Contributing to the tensions was the favoritism displayed by Morgan officials to British interests.[5] His firm was the official purchasing agent for the British government, buying cotton, steel, chemicals and food. Morgan organized a syndicate of about 2200 banks and floated a loan of $500,000,000 to the Allies. The British sold off their holdings of American securities and by late 1916 were dependent on unsecured loans for further purchases.[6]
At the beginning of World War I, US Treasury Secretary William McAdoo and others in the Wilson administration were very suspicious of J. P. Morgan & Co.'s enthusiastic role as British agent for purchasing and banking. When the United States entered the war, this gave way to close collaboration, in the course of which Morgan received financial concessions.[7]
On 3 July 1915, an intruder, Eric Muenter, entered Morgan's Long Island mansion and shot him twice in an attempt to assassinate him. This was ostensibly in protest of his profiteering from war. Morgan, however, quickly recovered from his wounds.[8][9]
After World War I and the Versailles Treaty, Morgan Guaranty managed Germany's reparation payments. After the war, Morgan made several trips to Europe to investigate and report on financial conditions there. By the 1920s, Guaranty had become one of the world's most important banking institutions, as a leading lender to Germany and Europe.[10] He worked extremely hard to defeat Franklin D. Roosevelt's plan for the New Deal during The Depression, and secured about US$100 million in loans to Italian dictator Benito Mussolini prior to World War II.[8]
In 1920 he gave his London residence, 14 Princes Gate (near Imperial College London), to the U.S. government for use as its embassy. In 1938 the Hon. Joseph P. Kennedy, having been appointed as the U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James, moved his family into this building and thus a future President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, came to call this building home.
Later Morgan created the Pierpont Morgan Library as a public institution in 1924 as a memorial to his father. Belle da Costa Greene, 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.
| Awards and achievements | ||
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| Preceded by Israel Zangwill |
Cover of Time Magazine 24 September 1923 |
Succeeded by Samuel Gompers |