Morris Ketchum Jesup
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Morris Ketchum Jesup (June 21, 1830 - January 22, 1908), United States banker and philanthropist, was born at Westport, Connecticut.
In 1842 he went to New York City, where after some experience in business he established a banking house in 1852. In 1856 he organized the banking firm of MK Jesup & Company, which after two reorganizations became Cuyler, Morgan & Jesup. He became widely known as a financier, retiring from active business in 1884.
He was one of the organizers of the United States Christian Commission during the Civil War, was one of the founders of the Young Men's Christian Association, and its president in 1872, was president after 1860 of the Five Points House of Industry, of which he was one of the founders, and after 1881 was president of the New York City Mission Society for which he built the DeWitt Memorial Church in Rivington Street. [1]
He was best known, however, as a munificent patron of scientific research, a large contributor to the needs of education, and a public-spirited citizen of wide interests, who did much for the betterment of social conditions in New York. He contributed largely to the funds for the Arctic expeditions of Commander Robert E Peary, becoming president of the Peary Arctic Club in 1899, and also funded the Jesup North Pacific Expedition (1897-1902), a major ethnographic project under Franz Boas. To the subject of Southern education, especially that of the negro, he gave much time and thought. He was treasurer of the Slater Fund at its beginning, and he was also a made a member of the Peabody Educational Board and of the General Education Board. In 1905 he was knighted by the Czar for philanthropic work. [2]
He became president of the American Museum of Natural History, in New York City, to which he gave large sums in his lifetime and bequeathed $1,000,000. In 1915 the Metropolitan Museum, New York, received by bequest of Mrs. Jesup a large and valuable collection of paintings. [3]
He was president of the New York Chamber of Commerce from 1899 until 1907, and was the largest subscriber to its new building. To his native town he gave a fine public library. He died in New York City on the 22 January 1908, aged 77.
Columbia University's Jesup Lectureship is named after him; also Cape Morris Jesup, the northernmost point of mainland Greenland.
[edit] Sources
- The Jesup Lectureship, Columbia University.
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
[edit] External links
- Division of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History - Objects and Photographs from Jesup North Pacific Expedition 1897-1902 (section Collections Online, option Collections Highlights).
