Charles Richard Crane
Charles Richard Crane (August 7, 1858 – February 15, 1939)[1] was a wealthy American businessman, heir to a large industrial fortune and connoisseur of Arab culture, a noted Arabist. His widespread business interests gave him entree into domestic and international political affairs where he enjoyed privileged access to many influential power brokers at the top levels of government. His special arena of interest was Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
Biography and diplomatic activity
Crane was the eldest son of plumbing parts mogul, Chicago manufacturer,
In the 1900s, he brought
President William Howard Taft appointed Crane minister to China on July 16, 1909,[7] but on the eve of his departure to his post on October 4, 1909, he was recalled to Washington and forced to resign under pressure by US Secretary of State Philander C. Knox,[8] who held him responsible for the publication in a Chicago newspaper of the US government's objections to two recent treaties between Japan and China.[9][10]
Crane contributed heavily to
From May and June 1918 he helped
Crane was appointed
In 1925 Crane founded the New York-based Institute of Current World Affairs. The institute employed field representatives in Mexico, Jerusalem, and occasionally Moscow. These representatives compiled regular reports on developments in their regions, and shared their expertise during ICWA-sponsored lecture tours of major US universities. The reports were also made available to the US State Department.
In 1931, Crane helped finance the first explorations for oil in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. He was instrumental in gaining the American oil concession there.[15][16]
He was also a member of the famous
His son, Richard Teller Crane II, was a diplomat.
Harvard/Danilov Bells
In the wake of the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, Crane was instrumental in rescuing from destruction some of the most important Russian bells, from the Danilov monastery. When the Communists closed the monastery in 1929, the Danilov bell set was saved from Communist melting by Crane's purchase of the bells. The largest of the bells, Bolshoi (or The Big One - called The Mother Earth Bell at Harvard), weighs 13 tons and has a 700-pound clapper. The smallest weighs just 22 pounds. Crane donated the bells to Harvard University and they were installed in the main tower of Harvard's Lowell House and at Harvard Business School's Baker Library, where they safely remained for over 70 years. Beginning in the 1980s, with openness under Gorbachev, there were calls to return the bells, and after numerous meetings over the years, the bells were returned to the Russian Orthodox Church and the Danilov monastery in 2008.[17]
Allegations of Anti-Semitism
When Franklin Roosevelt appointed William E. Dodd American ambassador to Germany in 1933, Crane wrote Dodd a letter of congratulation that told him:[18]
The Jews, after winning the war, galloping along at a swift pace, getting Russia, England and Palestine, being caught in the act of trying to seize Germany, too, and meeting their first real rebuff, have gone plumb crazy and are deluging the world—particularly easy America—with anti-German propaganda. I strongly advise you to resist every social invitation.
According to Larson, at a dinner, Ambassador Dodd heard Crane express admiration for Hitler and learned that Crane also had no objection to how the Nazis were treating Germany's Jews, telling Dodd: "Let Hitler have his way."[18]
In his biography of Crane, Norman E. Saul notes that he maintained relationships with prominent Jews such as Louis Brandeis and Lillian Wald and suggests that his “vague but open” anti-Semitism was not uncommon among Anglo-Saxons of his time. Saul notes that his admiration of Hitler left, in retrospect, the most damaging legacy to his reputation.[19]
Death and legacy
On February 15, 1939, Crane died of influenza in his Winter home in Palm Springs, California.[20]
On April 24, 2006, Crane's art collection was sold at Christie's auction house.[21]
Footnotes
- ^ Charles R. Crane, Friend of Russia, The Russian Review
- ISBN 978-0-7391-7746-4.
- ^ "Hyannis". Yarmouth Register. Yarmouth, MA. July 7, 1888. p. 1.
- ^ "Base Ball at Hyannis". Barnstable Patriot. Barnstable, MA. July 21, 1891. p. 2.
- ^ Cory, Charles B. (September 29, 1891). "How Mullens Won the Game". Barnstable Patriot. Barnstable, MA. p. 2.
- ^ Nanaimo, British Columbia(March 2004).
- ^ New York Times: "Crane Takes Post as Envy to China," July 17, 1909, accessed February 3, 2012
- ^ New York Times: "Call Back Minister Crane," October 5, 1909, accessed February 3, 2012
- ^ New York Times: "State Secrets Out; Crane Questioned," October 11, 1909, accessed February 3, 2012
- ^ David Philipson, My Life as an American Jew: An Autobiography (1941), 32-33, wrote that President Taft told him in November 1909 that he asked for Crane's resignation after hearing Crane responded to his election by saying: "Well, now that Taft is President, I suppose that Jake Schiff and his Jew crowd will have a great deal to say in our national affairs."
- ^ "The King-Crane Commission Report, August 28, 1919". Hellenic Resources Network. Retrieved 2010-08-03.
- ^ F.W. Brecher, "Charles R. Crane's Crusade for the Arabs, 1919-39," Middle Eastern Studies, XXIV, January 1988; pp 46-47. Elliott A Green, "The Curious Careers of Two Advocates of Arab Nationalism," Crossroads no. 33 [1992]
- ^ Beecher, Frank W. Reluctant Ally: United States Foreign Policy toward the Jews from Wilson to Roosevelt (NY: Green-wood Press, 1991), pp. ??
- ISBN 978-80-87173-47-3, pp. 20 - 96, 124 - 128, 140 - 148, 184 - 190
- ^ Harry St. J. B. Philby, "Sa'udi Arabia" (NY: F.A. Praeger, 1955), Chapter 11 {page?}
- ISBN 9780671799328.
- ^ Batuman, Elif (20 April 2009). "The Bells". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2020-12-10.
- ^ a b Larson, Erik, In The Garden of Beasts (Crown Publishers, 2011), 38-9
- ISBN 9780739177464p=270
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-10-15.
- ^ "Property from the Collection of Ambassador Charles R. Crane". Christie's. April 24, 2006. Retrieved October 16, 2023.
Further reading
- Norman E. Saul, The Life and Times of Charles R. Crane, 1858-1939: American Businessman, Philanthropist, and a Founder of Russian Studies in America. Lanham, MD: Lexington, 2013.
- Sulzbach, Jacob John, Jr. "Charles R. Crane, Woodrow Wilson, and Progressive reform: 1909-1921" (PhD dissertation, Texas A&M University; ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 1994. 9520473).