Figure 1.--
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Figure 1.-- |
John Pierpont Morgan was the greatest financier in American history. Known as "The Master of the Money," John Pierpont Morgan became the nation's foremost banker and one of the most successful industrialists in the age of the "Robber Barons." He was in effect the unofficial central banker of the United States.
J.P. as he was known to the world was born in 1837. He was born in Hartford, Connecticut, on April 17, 1837. A portrait of him at about 5 years of age with his sisters show them wearing plaid dresses. His dress had a button front. A later photograph show him at about 12 wearing a oeaked military-style cap. He was sent by his father to boarding school in Switzerland.
J.P. grew up in the banking business where his father, Junius Spencer Morgan, had attained great success. After working for his father, Morgan set up his own bank in 1871 and became even more successful than his father. In the 1890s, Morgan became very active in railroading, while also marketing federal securities on a massive scale. Both actions allowed him to build up a great personal fortune. In 1898, he entered the steel business and bought out Andrew Carnegie's company for $480 million. In 1901, he joined his new Federal Steel Company with
several smaller firms. He then established U.S. Steel, headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which has dominated the industry ever since.
Often pictured as a coldhearted banker running roughshod over the nation's antitrust laws, Morgan stayed within the law and was a conservative, cautious influence on American industry. Morgan -- from 1893 to his death on March 31, 1913--was the driving force behind American capitalism in banking, railroads, shipping, the telegraph, the telephone, the new electrical industry, and of course, steel. A great collector of art, Morgan gave many priceless works to the New York
Metropolitan Museum of Art. His collection of manuscripts and books can be found in the Morgan Library in New York City.
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