50 Fun Facts About J. P. Morgan

What did the initials in J. P. Morgan's name stand for?

He preferred to be called Pierpont; his uncle James Lord Pierpont wrote Jingle Bells.

J. P. Morgan was born in 1837 in which city?

He is buried there too, in Cedar Hill Cemetery; his grandfather Joseph co-founded the Aetna insurance company in the city.

Morgan's uncle James Lord Pierpont composed which famous song?

Morgan's mother Juliet was the daughter of the poet John Pierpont.

In 1901 Morgan merged Andrew Carnegie's business with others to form which company, the world's first billion-dollar corporation?

Its authorised capitalisation was $1.4 billion and it controlled two-thirds of the American steel market.

During which financial crisis did Morgan gather the nation's bankers in his library and force them to devise a rescue plan?

There was no central bank yet; the episode helped bring about the Federal Reserve six years later.

Morgan had booked a luxury suite with a private promenade deck on which ship's maiden voyage, but changed his plans?

His International Mercantile Marine owned the White Star Line, and the sinking was a financial disaster for the company.

Which inventor did Morgan give $150,000 in 1900 to build a trans-Atlantic wireless system at Wardenclyffe?

When Tesla scaled the project up to wireless power transmission, Morgan refused further funds and the site was abandoned by 1906.

Morgan's house at 219 Madison Avenue achieved what distinction on 6 June 1882?

He had financed Edison's Electric Illuminating Company in 1878; a coal-fired steam engine drove two generators.

Morgan avoided serving in the Civil War by doing what, as the law then allowed?

He spent the war profiting from Union bonds and a controversial gold shipment to England.

The Hall Carbine Affair of 1861, which dogged Morgan's reputation, involved a loan used to buy rifles resold to which Union general?

Government-surplus carbines bought for $3.50 were resold to the army at $22 each; whether Morgan knew is still debated.

In 1865 the young Morgan secured an exclusive contract with Peru to export what commodity?

The bird droppings were used for fertiliser and gunpowder, and he took a two-and-a-half percent commission.

Which Philadelphia financier became Morgan's mentor and partner in 1871, forming the firm that became J.P. Morgan & Co.?

After Drexel died the firm was renamed J. P. Morgan & Company in 1895.

Morgan's father Junius made his career in London as a partner of which American-born merchant banker?

Peabody turned to the Bank of England for a loan to survive the Panic of 1857 and retired in 1864.

The practice of reorganising and consolidating railroads that Morgan pioneered became known by what term?

He raised much of the money on the London Stock Exchange and personally managed the lines he took over.

In 1895 Morgan and the Rothschilds sold 3.5 million ounces of gold to the US Treasury to save it from default under which president?

Morgan told Cleveland the government could default that very day; the deal finished Cleveland with his party's populist wing.

Which president ordered the antitrust suit that broke up Morgan's Northern Securities railroad combine in 1904?

Morgan, E. H. Harriman and James J. Hill had merged the Northern Pacific, Great Northern and Burlington lines.

Morgan suffered a rare defeat in 1902 when transit magnate Charles Tyson Yerkes blocked his plan to build a line on what?

Morgan called it 'the greatest rascality and conspiracy I ever heard of'.

To end the 1907 crisis, Morgan had U.S. Steel buy which troubled company, after Roosevelt promised antitrust immunity?

Its stock had been pledged as collateral by the brokerage Moore and Schley, whose failure could have brought down more banks.

In December 1912 Morgan testified before which congressional inquiry into the 'money trust'?

Louis Brandeis compared the $22 billion the Morgan interests controlled to all the property west of the Mississippi.

Morgan died in his sleep in March 1913 in which city?

Wall Street flags flew at half-staff and the stock market closed for two hours as his body passed through New York.

What honour, usually reserved for heads of state, did the New York Stock Exchange grant when Morgan's body passed through the city?

His remains were taken to Cedar Hill Cemetery in Hartford.

Biographer Ron Chernow estimated Morgan's fortune at death at about how much?

John D. Rockefeller is said to have remarked, 'And to think, he wasn't even a rich man'; his art alone was valued at $50 million.

Morgan's distinctive purple, deformed nose was caused by which condition?

It arises from rosacea; he had every professional portrait retouched and hated unauthorised photographs.

Why, according to his son-in-law, did Morgan never have his nose surgically corrected?

He asserted the force of his character over the affliction and dared people to meet his gaze.

Morgan's first wife Amelia Sturges died four months after their 1861 wedding of what?

He carried her to their wedding ceremony and took her to Algiers hoping the climate would help; she died in Nice.

Morgan's succession of steam yachts all bore what name?

Corsair II became the gunboat USS Gloucester in the Spanish-American War, and Corsair III ended up as a survey ship.

Which famous quip about yacht ownership is commonly, if unreliably, attributed to Morgan?

He was Commodore of the New York Yacht Club from 1897 to 1899 and bought the land for its Manhattan clubhouse.

When his friend John King was blackballed from the Union Club, Morgan resigned and founded which rival institution?

He told architect Stanford White to 'build me a club fit for gentlemen, forget the expense'.

Morgan served as president of which New York institution from 1904, having been a founding member?

Art critic Roger Fry worked there as a curator and buyer until he fell out with Morgan.

Who did J. P. Morgan Jr. appoint as first director when he made his father's library a public institution in 1924?

She had been Morgan's private librarian and one of the most powerful figures in the rare-book world.

Morgan's gem collections, assembled by Tiffany's George Frederick Kunz, were donated to which institution?

The first collection of over 1,000 American stones won two gold awards at the 1889 Paris World's Fair.

Which pink gemstone was named in Morgan's honour?

Kunzite, by contrast, is named after the Tiffany gemologist who built his collection.

Morgan paid photographer Edward S. Curtis $75,000 in 1906 to document what?

The result was the 20-volume The North American Indian.

The 1933 Glass–Steagall Act split the House of Morgan into three. Which investment house, 'Morgan ___', was formed by his grandson Henry?

Morgan Grenfell in London and J.P. Morgan & Co., later merged into Chase, were the other two.

According to a former Parker Brothers executive, Morgan was the model for which board-game mascot?

Illustrator Daniel Fox created the top-hatted character in 1936.

Morgan is believed to be the model for Walter Parks Thatcher, the cold guardian in which Orson Welles film?

George Coulouris played the banker whom Kane blames for destroying his childhood.

Morgan earned a degree in art history in six months at which German university?

His father had sent him first to Switzerland to learn French, then to Germany to improve his German.

As a teenager Morgan suffered which illness, whose recurring symptoms eventually left him unable to walk?

His father sent him to the Azores for almost a year to recover.

Morgan's grandfather Joseph co-founded which insurance company?

Morgan and his partners later held controlling interests in Aetna, Western Union, Pullman and 21 railroads.

A 2000s investigation found that two Louisiana banks now part of JPMorgan had accepted roughly how many enslaved people as loan collateral before the Civil War?

Citizens' Bank and Canal Bank ended up owning about 1,250 people; the company apologised under a Chicago disclosure rule.

Morgan was a leading lay figure in which church, and financed a special printing of its 1892 Book of Common Prayer?

He gave $100,000 to a commission on Christian unity in 1910.

Morgan's London town house at 13–14 Prince's Gate was later offered to the US government for use as what?

It served that purpose from 1929 to 1955; he spent three months of every year in London.

Morgan smoked dozens of huge Havana cigars a day, which observers nicknamed what?

He developed his taste for Cuban cigars on a trip through the cotton South and Cuba in 1859.

Roughly how many major corporations did J.P. Morgan and Company organise or underwrite between 1890 and 1913?

They included International Harvester, General Electric and, in 1901, U.S. Steel.

Where did Morgan meet Frances Louisa 'Fanny' Tracy, whom he married in 1865?

They had four children, including the philanthropist Anne Tracy Morgan.

How many volumes were in The North American Indian, the Edward Curtis work Morgan funded?

Curtis also made the 1914 motion picture In the Land of the Head Hunters.

One man said a visit from Morgan left him feeling as if what had blown through the house?

Morgan was physically large with massive shoulders and piercing eyes, and hated being photographed without permission.

In 1851 Morgan passed the entrance exam for a Boston school specialising in what?

The English High School of Boston prepared him for a career in trade before rheumatic fever struck in April 1852.

How many railroads did Morgan and his partners hold controlling interests in?

Their portfolio also took in Aetna, Western Union and the Pullman Car Company.

How much of each year did Morgan typically spend in London, where he owned two houses?

His town house at 13 Prince's Gate came from his father; his American country seat was Cragston at Highland Falls, New York.