The American Museum Journal 



Vol. XIII APRIL, 1913 No. 4 



J. PIERPONT MORGAN 



A FOUNDER AND BENEFACTOR OF THE MUSEUM 

 By Joseph H. Choate 



THE death of J. Pierpont Morgan is a very severe loss to the American 

 Museum of Natural History. As one of the charter founders of 

 the Museum, as a trustee from the beginning, and for a long period 

 a vice-president and a member of the Executive Committee, he exercised 

 always a commanding influence m its councils, and as one of its most 

 generous benefactors, he contributed largely to the enrichment of its 

 collections. 



To the long continued efforts of Morris K. Jesup and of Henry Fairfield 

 Osborn to maintain the Museum in a leading place among the museums of 

 natural history in the world, and at the same time to make it a powerful 

 educational influence in the City of New York, he gave continual support. 

 The very rich and almost unique collection of gems and minerals which be 

 presented to the Museum is in itself an object of vast interest and admiration 

 in the scientific world, as well as in the popular mind, and is a delightful 

 monument to his memory. And then, besides the material wealth which 

 he has donated so freely to the Museum, the mere fact of his having been a 

 member of its Board of Trustees and an active worker in its affairs for more 

 than forty years, is an invaluable possession. 



As Mr. Morgan himself said in his examination at Washington, "char- 

 acter is the secret of $1 success in life," and this applies as well to corporate 

 as to individual success, and especially to corporations organized not for 

 money-making or business purposes, but for the promotion, in any form, of 

 the public welfare; and when an institution like the American Museum of 

 Natural History aspires, as it did from the beginning, to take a great place 

 not only in the public eye but also in the scientific and educational world, the 

 presence of such an individual in its government invites and holds for it 

 at all times universal approval. It was sufficient to say that Mr. Morgan 

 was one of its active officers and workers to answer all queries about it. 



To his associates in the Board, and to the scientific staff and large 

 company of employees, who regarded a visit of his to the Museum as an 

 important event, he had long since become a figure of great personal interest 

 which commanded their general respect and affection. His influence was 

 always for good, and for conduct and measures on the part of the Museum, 

 of an elevated and inspiring character. The same qualities that gave him 

 his supreme place among his fellow citizens in the United States and at- 

 tracted the admiration of all the people in the world who knew him, if even 

 only by name, made him always an invaluable element in the cause of 

 education and science represented by the American Museum. 



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