James William Ellsworth

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
James W. Ellsworth

James William Ellsworth also James W. Ellsworth or James Ellworth (born October 13, 1849 in Hudson , † June 2, 1925 in Florence ) was an American industrialist, art collector and patron. The town of Ellsworth is named after him. His son was the polar explorer and aviator Lincoln Ellsworth .

Life

Ellsworth graduated from Western Reserve College . In 1868 he graduated and then worked as an employee in a company that he was able to take over after five years. He expanded the company with coal mines in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Virginia and sales offices in Chicago, New York City and Pittsburgh. From 1896 to 1898 he was director of the Union National Bank of Chicago .

He married Eva Frances Butler on November 4, 1874. They had two children: Lincoln and Claire. In 1888 his first wife died and in 1895 he married Julia Clarke Fincke († 1921).

In 1907 he sold his coal mines to Bethlehem Steel and acquired the Villa Palmieri in Fiesole near Florence . Here he devoted himself to collecting coins and medieval art. In 1911 he acquired Lenzburg Castle for the purchase price of 550,000 francs, initially only to be able to obtain a historical table from the time of Emperor Barbarossa , which the owners did not want to sell separately.

James Ellsworth was President of the Caxton Club and the Jekyll Island Club. He was a member of the American Numismatic and Archaeological Society (ANAS). In 1923 he sold his extensive coin collection to George Clapp , who later donated the collection to ANAS. Ellsworth also collected rare books, Chinese porcelain, Greek statues and oriental antiquities.

In 1907 the city of Hudson had been destroyed by a major fire and he began a project to rebuild the city, particularly his former school. He also supported Roald Amundsen's polar expedition with $ 85,000 in 1925 , although at the beginning (1904) he was strictly against his son's plans to participate.

literature

  • Heidi Neuenschwander: Lenzburg Castle since the canton was founded . In: Historical Society of the Canton of Aargau (Ed.): Argovia . tape 106 . Sauerländer, Aarau 1994, ISBN 3-7941-3778-7 ( online ).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ H. Neuenschwander: Lenzburg Castle since the canton was founded. 1994, p. 515.
  2. ^ Founder of Ellsworth dies at Florence, Italy. Obituary. In: The Daily Republican.
  3. ↑ Martin Müller: Lincoln Ellsworth in memory (PDF; 720 kB). In: Polar Research. 22, 1952, pp. 194-196.
personal data
SURNAME Ellsworth, James William
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ellsworth, James W .; Ellworth, James
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American industrialist, art collector, and patron
DATE OF BIRTH October 13, 1849
PLACE OF BIRTH Hudson
DATE OF DEATH June 2, 1925
Place of death Florence