Jonathan Sturges (businessman)

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Jonathan Sturges
Portrait of Sturges by Asher Brown Durand, c. 1840
Born(1802-03-24)March 24, 1802
Southport, Connecticut, U.S.
DiedNovember 28, 1874(1874-11-28) (aged 72)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupation(s)Businessman, arts patron, philanthropist
Spouse
Mary Pemberton Cady
​
(m. 1828)​
Parent(s)Barnabas Lothrop Sturges
Mary Sturges
RelativesLewis Burr Sturges (uncle)
Jonathan Sturges (grandfather)
Henry Fairfield Osborn (grandson)
William Church Osborn (grandson)

Jonathan Sturges (March 24, 1802 – November 28, 1874)[1] was an American businessman, arts patron, and philanthropist.

Early life[edit]

He was born in Southport, Connecticut on March 24, 1802. He was the son of Barnabas Lothrop Sturges (1769–1831) and Mary (née Sturges) Sturges (1771–1840).[2] His older sister, Mary Ann Sturges, was the wife of William Lockwood and his brother, Lothrop Sturges, was the husband of Jane Freeman Corry.[3]

His paternal uncle and grandfather, Lewis Burr Sturges and Jonathan Sturges, were both U.S. Representatives from Connecticut,[4] and his maternal grandparents were Hezekiah Sturges and Abigail (née Dimon) Sturges.[5]

Career[edit]

Kindred Spirits, commissioned by Sturges as a gift for William Cullen Bryant in gratitude for the nature poet's eulogy to Thomas Cole.

Sturges' father had a failed business (he built a vessel which was captured by the French on its first voyage), so, after receiving a "liberal education", in 1821, Jonathan went to New York City and worked as a clerk in Luman Reed's grocery business at 125 Front Street.[3] Eventually, in 1828, became a one-third partner in the reorganized firm of Reed, Hemstead Sturges, followed by senior partner upon the death of Reed in June 1836. Reed was Sturges' introduction to arts patronage.[6] Sturges retired from "mercantile pursuits" in 1868 and left the business in the hands of Benjamin G. Arnold, the founding president of the Coffee Exchange in the 1880s.[1]

With the success of his mercantile business, he moved into other enterprises.[7] He was a founder and director of the Bank of Commerce of New York, a founder and director of the Illinois Central Railroad,[8] and a shareholder in the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. He helped found the Union League Club of New York and became its second president in 1863.[9]

Arts patronage[edit]

A View of the Mountain Pass Called the Notch of the White Mountains, by Thomas Cole, 1839.

Sturges became an important American patron of the arts, acquiring Luman Reed's collection with a group following Reed's death in 1836. He commissioned numerous paintings from American artists, such as Kindred Spirits, a tribute to Thomas Cole by Asher Brown Durand; Durand also made portraits of the Sturges family.[10]

The group created the New-York Gallery of Fine Arts for Reed's collection, which eventually went to the New York Historical Society. Sturges patronized other American artists such as Frederic Edwin Church, Henry Inman, William Sidney Mount, John Gadsby Chapman, Henry Kirke Brown, Henry Peters Gray, Charles C. Ingham, and Robert W. Weir.[4]

In Henry Tuckerman's 1867 Book of the Artists, Sturges' art collection was included as one of the ten most significant private art collections in New York City.[4]

Personal life[edit]

The Sturges House in Fairfield, Connecticut.
The late Jonathan Sturges, a celebrated merchant and citizen of New York, 1861-c. 1880

On October 25, 1828, Sturges was married to Mary Pemberton Cady (1806–1894), the daughter of Ebenezer Pemberton Cady (a grandson of Ebenezer Pemberton) and Elizabeth Smith Cady.[11] Together, they had a house in New York City and a summer residence on Mill Plain Road in Fairfield, a Gothic Revival home designed in 1840 by English architect Joseph Collins Wells, today known as the Jonathan Sturges House (the property remains in the family).[12][13] Mary and Jonathan were the parents of five children, including:

  • Virginia Reed Sturges (1830–1902),[14] who married railroad executive William H. Osborn in 1853.[15]
  • Frederick Sturges (1833–1917),[16] who married Mary Reed Fuller (1834–1886), daughter of Dudley B. Fuller.[17]
  • Amelia Sturges (1835–1862), who married J. P. Morgan in 1861, but died of tuberculosis soon after.[18] In Morgan's will, he left $100,000 to the House of Rest for Consumptives in her honor.[19]
  • Arthur Pemberton Sturges (1842–1866), who entered Princeton Theological Seminary, but died before graduating.[20]
  • Henry Cady Sturges (1846–1922), who married Sarah Adams MacWhorter (1864–1959), daughter of George Gray MacWhorter.[3]

Sturges died on November 28, 1874, at his residence, 40 East 36th Street in Manhattan.[1] After a funeral at his residence, and at the Reformed Church at Fifth Avenue and 29th Street, he was buried at Fairfield East Cemetery in Fairfield, Connecticut.[21] In his will, he appointed his on Frederick and his son-in-law William Osborn as executors and trustees.[22]

Descendants[edit]

View at Amalfi, Bay of Salerno, by George Loring Brown, 1857.

Through his eldest daughter, he was a grandfather of Henry Fairfield Osborn (1857–1935), a geologist, paleontologist, and eugenist who served as president of the American Museum of Natural History,[23] and married writer Lucretia Thatcher Perry,[24] daughter of Brigadier General Alexander James Perry and sister of Josephine Adams Perry (who married Junius Spencer Morgan II);[25] and William Church Osborn (1862–1951),[26] who served as president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art,[27] and married philanthropist and social reformer Alice Clinton Hoadley Dodge, a daughter of William E. Dodge Jr.[28]

His grandson, William Church Osborn, who inherited Sturges' View at Amalfi, Bay of Salerno, from his grandmother, donated the painting by George Loring Brown to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1903 (of which Sturges was active in establishing[5]),[29] as well as the 1846 The Flower Girl by Charles Cromwell Ingham, in 1902.[30]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c "OBITUARY. Jonathan Sturges" (PDF). The New York Times. November 30, 1874. Retrieved 12 September 2019.
  2. ^ Schenck, Elizabeth Hubbell Godfrey (1905). The History of Fairfield, Fairfield County, Connecticut, from the Settlement of the Town in 1639 to 1818: 1700-1800 [i. e. 1789. p. 470. Retrieved 12 September 2019.
  3. ^ a b c Hill, Edwin Charles; Porter, Bela James (1923). The Historical Register: A Biographical Record of the Men of Our Time who Have Contributed to the Making of America. E.C. Hill. p. 52. Retrieved 12 September 2019.
  4. ^ a b c Oaklander, Christine I. (2008). "Jonathan Sturges, W. H. Osborn, and William Church Osborn: A Chapter in American Art Patronage". Metropolitan Museum Journal. 43: 173–194. doi:10.1086/met.43.25699093. JSTOR 25699093. S2CID 192999034.
  5. ^ a b Greene, Richard Henry; Stiles, Henry Reed; Dwight, Melatiah Everett; Morrison, George Austin; Mott, Hopper Striker; Totten, John Reynolds; Pitman, Harold Minot; Forest, Louis Effingham De; Ditmas, Charles Andrew; Mann, Conklin; Maynard, Arthur S. (1919). The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record. New York Genealogical and Biographical Society. p. 233. Retrieved 12 September 2019.
  6. ^ Wallach, Alan (2018). "Aestheticizing Tendencies in Hudson River School Landscape Painting at the Beginning of the Gilded Age". In Laster, Margaret R.; Bruner, Chelsea (eds.). New York: Art and Cultural Capital of the Gilded Age. Routledge. ISBN 9781351027564.
  7. ^ "THE MERCHANTS' TRIBUTE TO MR. STURGES' MEMORY" (PDF). The New York Times. December 2, 1874. Retrieved 12 September 2019.
  8. ^ "Meeting of the Illinois Central Railroad Company" (PDF). The New York Times. 1 December 1874. Retrieved 12 September 2019.
  9. ^ "The Late Jonathan Sturges; Action of the Union League Club-- Speeches and Resolutions" (PDF). The New York Times. 1 December 1874. Retrieved 12 September 2019.
  10. ^ Caldwell, John; Roque, Oswaldo Rodriguez (1994). American Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 1. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
  11. ^ "Osborn, William H. (William Henry), 1820-1894". research.frick.org. Frick Art Reference Library. Retrieved 24 June 2019.
  12. ^ Ohno, Kate Mearns; Pitts, Carolyn (October 6, 1993). "National Historic Landmark Nomination: Jonathan Sturges House" (pdf). National Park Service.
  13. ^ Gaynes, Steven (April 24, 2019). "In the Suburbs: Sturges 'cottage' a treasure". Fairfield Citizen. Retrieved 12 September 2019.
  14. ^ "DIED" (PDF). The New York Times. 9 February 1902. Retrieved 24 June 2019.
  15. ^ "THE OBITUARY RECORD.; William H. Osborn" (PDF). The New York Times. 5 March 1894. Retrieved 24 June 2019.
  16. ^ "Obituary Notes | FREDERICK STURGES" (PDF). The New York Times. December 23, 1917. Retrieved 12 September 2019.
  17. ^ "Jonathan Sturges papers, 1834-1866". www.aaa.si.edu. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 12 September 2019.
  18. ^ Cahoon, Herbert (April 22, 1979). "The Grand Tour: Memorandum From J. Pierpont Morgan" (PDF). The New York Times. Retrieved 12 September 2019.
  19. ^ "$3,000,000 to Each Child and $1,000,000 To Mrs. Morgan CASH TO ALL EMPLOYES" (PDF). The New York Times. April 20, 1913. Retrieved 12 September 2019.
  20. ^ Columbia University Quarterly. Columbia University Press. 1905. p. 186. Retrieved 12 September 2019.
  21. ^ "THE LATE JONATHAN STURGES.; FUNERAL SERVICES YESTERDAY--EULOGIES ON THE DECEASED--INTERMENT TO TAKE PLACE TO-DAY" (PDF). December 2, 1874. Retrieved 12 September 2019.
  22. ^ "THE LATE JONATHAN STURGES WILL" (PDF). The New York Times. December 17, 1874. Retrieved 12 September 2019.
  23. ^ "DR. HENRY F. OSBORN DIES IN HIS STUDY; Retired Head of the Museum of Natural History, Eminent as Paleontologist, Was 78. A DEFENDER OF EVOLUTION Authority on Prehistoric Life, Author and Explorer, Was Foe of Fundamentalists" (PDF). The New York Times. 7 November 1935. Retrieved 24 June 2019.
  24. ^ "MRS. HENRY F. OSBORN, WRITER, DIES AT 72; Wife of Natural History Museum President, Was Author of a Washington Biography" (PDF). The New York Times. 27 August 1930. Retrieved 24 June 2019.
  25. ^ "Wedding on Governor's Island.; Prof. Henry F. Osborn, of Princeton, United to Miss Lucretia T. Perry" (PDF). The New York Times. 30 September 1881. Retrieved 24 June 2019.
  26. ^ "WILLIAM C. OSBORN, CIVIC LEADER, DEAD; Ex-President of Metropolitan Museum of Art Also Headed Children's Aid Society LAWYER HERE FOR 61 YEARS Was a Founder of the Citizens Budget Commission in 1932 --Served With Railroads" (PDF). The New York Times. 4 January 1951. Retrieved 21 March 2019.
  27. ^ Howat, John K.; Church, Frederic Edwin (2005). Frederic Church. Yale University Press. pp. 117, 170. ISBN 978-0300109887.
  28. ^ "MRS. OSBORN DIES; PHILANTHROPIST, 81; Wife of Head of Metropolitan Museum of Art a Leader in Travelers Aid Society" (PDF). The New York Times. 31 March 1946. Retrieved 21 March 2019.
  29. ^ "View at Amalfi, Bay of Salerno,1857 George Loring Brown American". metmuseum.org. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 12 September 2019.
  30. ^ "The Flower Girl,1846 Charles Cromwell Ingham American, born Ireland". metmuseum.org. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 12 September 2019.

External links[edit]

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