Edward Harkness
Edward Harkness | |
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Anna M. Richardson (Harkness) | |
Relatives | Charles W. Harkness, brother Florence, sister Lamon V. Harkness half brother |
Edward Stephen Harkness (January 22, 1874 – January 29, 1940) was an American
Harkness inherited his fortune from his father,
Biography
Edward ("Ned") Harkness was born in
After graduating, Edward Harkness married Mary Stillman, daughter of wealthy New York attorney Thomas E. Stillman, in 1904. Mary's maternal grandfather was Thomas S. Greenman, a shipbuilder in Mystic, Connecticut, who co-founded George Greenman & Co shipyard. (This is now part of the Mystic Seaport Museum). Harkness' mother gave the couple a new Italian Renaissance mansion on New York City's Upper East Side as a wedding present. As the building's architect, Harkness chose Yale College classmate James Gamble Rogers, who would later design many of his philanthropic building projects. The home, at 75th Street and 5th Avenue and now known as the Edward S. Harkness House, became the headquarters of Harkness' Commonwealth Fund after Mary's death.
Harkness briefly served as a railroad director for the
Harkness' older brother Charles died in 1916 at age 55, leaving Edward more than US$80 million, $2.24 billion in 2023, much of it in Standard Oil stock.[4] Charles had continued to invest substantially in Standard Oil as manager of the family fortune, and his brother's estate made Harkness the third-largest stakeholder in Standard Oil.[4][6]
Philanthropy
Harkness made charitable gifts totaling more than $129 million, the equivalent of $2.35 billion in 2023. His philanthropic peers John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie gave respectively $550 million and $350 million.[6]
Medical philanthropy
Harkness encouraged and orchestrated the merger of
CPMC was built in the 1920s on the site of Hilltop Park, the one-time home stadium of the New York Yankees, which Harkness purchased and donated. Despite his aversion to have anything named for himself, The Edward Harkness Eye Institute was named by relatives.
In 1997, Columbia-Presbyterian merged with the
Arts philanthropy
Harkness was a major benefactor of the
Ned was actively involved with the discovery and excavation of King Tutankhamun's tomb. Mr. and Mrs. Harkness and Albert Lythgoe visited Howard Carter at the site multiple times and in fact, Carter invited Harkness to witness the opening of King Tutankhamun's sarcophagus on February 12, 1924.[12]
Educational philanthropy
In 1917, a year after Charles' death, Anna Harkness donated $3 million to Yale University to build the
Ned Harkness and his wife made many contributions to educational buildings, including
Between 1926 and 1930, Harkness made major donations to his alma mater, Yale, and Harvard to establish
Around the same time as his Yale-Harvard philanthropy, Harkness sought to reform the pedagogical techniques of the country's elite boarding schools. At
He established the Harkness Fellowships and founded the Pilgrim Trust in the UK in 1930 with an endowment of just over two million pounds, "prompted by his admiration for what Great Britain had done in the 1914–18 war and, by his ties of affection for the land from which he drew his descent."[19] The current priorities of the trust are preservation, places of worship, and social welfare.
Residences
Edward and Mary Harkness had a number of homes in addition to Harkness House in New York. They spent summers at their Eolia mansion on Long Island Sound in Waterford, Connecticut, near where Mary had visited her grandparents in the summers. The home and 230 acres (93 ha) of ornamental gardens and grounds are now maintained by the State of Connecticut as Harkness Memorial State Park. The Harkness' used their steam yacht Steveana (named after his parents) to commute back and forth to New York. For longer trips across country, Ned and Mary used their Pullman car Pelham named after Pelham, Massachusetts, where the Harkness family started in America.
Ned and Mary also owned another house on Long Island in Manhasset, New York, on 186 acres called Weekend, designed by architect James Gamble Rogers, plus houses in North Carolina, San Diego, California and a camp at the Ausable Club in the Adirondacks. Ned was an avid golfer and was a member of the Jekyll Island Club in Georgia, Cypress Point Club, The Creek Club in Locust Valley, the Valley Club of Monteceito in Santa Barbara and Yeamans Hall Club outside of Charleston, South Carolina, another James Gamble Rogers golf and winter community. He was also a member of the Racquet and Tennis Club in New York City.
Burial
Edward and Mary Harkness are buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York City, which is today a National Historic Landmark.[20] The Harkness family mausoleum is stately and includes a privately walled and locked garden. The mausoleum does not have any name at all on it noting who is buried inside. The architecture of the mausoleum evokes that of a small medieval church.[21]
Legacy
In addition to the family-funded foundations, Harkness, along with another wealthy neighbor, Edward Crowninshield Hammond, was the inspiration for Eugene O'Neill's off-stage character "Harker", the "Standard Oil millionaire", in Long Day's Journey into Night, and on-stage figure "T. Stedman Harder" in A Moon for the Misbegotten.[22]
References
- ^ The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, pp. 1238, Columbia University Press, 2000
- ^ Philanthropists and Foundation Globalization, By Joseph C. Kiger (2008), pp 39
- ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved June 14, 2023.
- ^ a b c "C. W. Harkness Left $1,700,000 Estate" (PDF). The New York Times. May 9, 1916. Retrieved May 27, 2015.
- ^ Peterson-Withorn, Chase. "From Rockefeller to Ford, See Forbes' 1918 Ranking Of The Richest People In America". Forbes. Retrieved October 5, 2022.
- ^ a b c Towler, Katherine (Fall 2006). "The Men Behind the Plan" (PDF). Exeter Bulletin. pp. 25–33. Retrieved May 27, 2015.
- ^ Phelps Association Membership Directory, 2006
- ^ "Education: Old Blue". Time. February 19, 1940. Retrieved May 27, 2015.
- ^ Perry, Lewis (October 1951). "Edward and Mary Harkness" (PDF). Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin. 10 (2): 57–59. Retrieved May 29, 2015.
- ^ Finding aid for the Preston Remington records, 1925-1970, Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved July 25, 2014.
- ^ Gelfand, Aleksandr (October 26, 2012). "This Weekend in Met History: October 28". Now at the Met. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved May 27, 2015.
- ^ Howard Carter Journal | http://www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/gri/4sea2not.html
- ^ The Half Opened Door, Marcia Graham Synnott, 1979), p. 9
- ^ a b Schiff, Judith Ann (May–June 2008). "How the colleges were born". Yale Alumni Magazine. Retrieved April 3, 2014.
- ^ "Harkness and History". Harvard Magazine. November 2011. Retrieved May 27, 2015.
- ^ Kelley, Brooks Mather (1999). Yale: A History (2nd ed.). New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 384.
- ^ Wooster, Martin Morse. "Edward Harkness". The Philanthropy Roundtable. Retrieved May 27, 2015.
- ^ The Exeter Bulletin, Fall 2006, p.28
- ^ Trust Deed, quoted on the Pilgrim Trust website, accessed December 4, 2006.
- ^ "Edward Harkness Mausoleum at Woodlawn Cemetery. Great philanthropists Edward Harkness, son of an original Standard Oil par… | Woodlawn cemetery, Woodlawn, Cemetery".
- ^ Harkness Maussoleum Built in 1924
- ISBN 978-0816066759
Further reading
- Wooster, James Willet (1949). Edward Stephen Harkness, 1874-1940. Privately printed. OCLC 3946050.
External links
- Edward S. Harkness Eye Institute at NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital
- Architectural article on Harkness House at 1 East 75th Street - now offices of the Commonwealth Fund.
- Pictures and history of Harkness House, current home to the Commonwealth Fund
- The Pilgrim Trust website
- 'Edward S. Harkness, 1874-1940', Richard F. Niebling, Phillips Exeter Bulletin, Fall 1982 (PDF)
- The Commonwealth Fund website