Edward Harkness | |
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 Harkness circa 1912 | |
| Born | Edward Stephen Harkness (1874-01-22)January 22, 1874 Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. |
| Died | January 29, 1940(1940-01-29) (aged 66) |
| Resting place | Woodlawn Cemetery |
| Education | St. Paul's School Yale College Columbia Law School |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | Mary Stillman |
| Parent(s) | Stephen V. Harkness Anna M. Richardson (Harkness) |
| Relatives | Charles W. Harkness, brother Florence, sister Lamon V. Harkness half brother |
Edward Stephen Harkness (January 22, 1874 – January 29, 1940) was an Americanphilanthropist. Given privately and through his family'sCommonwealth Fund, Harkness' gifts to private hospitals, art museums, and educational institutions in the Northeastern United States were among the largest of the early twentieth century.[1][2] He was a major benefactor toColumbia University,Yale University,Harvard University,Phillips Exeter Academy,St. Paul's School, theMetropolitan Museum of Art, and theUniversity of St Andrews in Scotland. He was elected a member of theAmerican Philosophical Society in 1934.[3]
Harkness inherited his fortune from his father,Stephen V. Harkness, whose wealth was established by an early investment inStandard Oil, and his brother,Charles W. Harkness.[4] In 1918, he was ranked the 6th-richest person in the United States byForbes magazine's first "Rich List",[5] behindJohn D. Rockefeller,Henry Clay Frick,Andrew Carnegie,George Fisher Baker, andWilliam Rockefeller.
Edward ("Ned") Harkness was born inCleveland, Ohio, one of four sons ofAnna M. Harkness andStephen V. Harkness, a harness-maker who invested in and was one of the five founding partners in the forerunner ofStandard Oil,John D. Rockefeller's oil company. Stephen Harkness died when Edward was fourteen, leaving his wife and his oldest son,Charles, to manage the estate.[6] Harkness attendedSt. Paul's School andYale College, Class of 1897 andColumbia Law School. Harkness, his brother Charles, and cousinWilliam were members ofWolf's Head Society at Yale.[7] While at Yale, Ned enlisted the assistance ofHenry Sloane Coffin as a tutor. Ned and Henry became friends and roomed together. Henry was later the pastor ofMadison Avenue Presbyterian Church, a few blocks away from Harkness and his wife's mansion in New York. Henry's brotherWilliam Sloane Coffin Sr. was the president of theMetropolitan Museum of Art from 1931 to 1933. Ned had already been heavily involved with the museum as a trustee and major donor.
After graduating, Edward Harkness marriedMary Stillman, daughter of wealthy New York attorney Thomas E. Stillman, in 1904. Her maternal grandfather, Thomas S. Greenman, was a shipbuilder inMystic, Connecticut and the co-founder George Greenman & Co shipyard, now part of theMystic Seaport Museum. Harkness' mother gave the couple anew Italian Renaissance mansion on Manhattan's Upper East Side as a wedding present. As the building's architect, Harkness chose Yale College classmateJames Gamble Rogers, who would later design many of his philanthropic building projects. The home, at 75th Street and 5th Avenue and now known as theEdward S. Harkness House, became the headquarters of Harkness'Commonwealth Fund after Mary's death in 1950.
Harkness briefly served as a railroad director for theSouthern Pacific Railroad, but within several years decided to become a full-time philanthropist.[8] He began making gifts to the Egyptian collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1912, and that same year was appointed to the museum's board of trustees.[9]
Harkness' older brother Charles died in 1916 at age 55, leaving Edward more than US$80 million, $2.31 billion in 2024, much of it in Standard Oil stock.[4] Charles had continued to invest substantially inStandard Oil as manager of the family fortune, and his brother's estate made Harkness the third-largest stakeholder in Standard Oil.[4][6]
Harkness made charitable gifts totaling more than $129 million, the equivalent of $2.42 billion in 2024. His philanthropic peersJohn D. Rockefeller andAndrew Carnegie gave respectively $550 million and $350 million.[6]
Harkness encouraged and orchestrated the merger ofPresbyterian Hospital and Columbia University'sCollege of Physicians and Surgeons, creating Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center (CPMC), the world's firstacademic medical center.
CPMC was built in the 1920s on the site ofHilltop Park, the one-time home stadium of theNew York Yankees, which Harkness purchased and donated. Despite his aversion to have anything named for himself, The Edward Harkness Eye Institute was named by relatives.
In 1997, Columbia-Presbyterian merged with theNew York Hospital. New York Hospital had affiliated withCornell University'sWeill Cornell Medical College in the 1930s, following their lead. Now known asNewYork-Presbyterian Hospital / Columbia University Medical Center, the Harkness Pavilion, named for father Stephen, is a central part of the campus.
Harkness was a major benefactor of theNew York Public Library and theMetropolitan Museum of Art.[10] In addition to donations to the Decorative Arts Department, he gifted the Metropolitan Museum its initialancient Egyptian art collection. He purchased the completeTomb of Perneb for nthe museum and helped purchase theCarnarvon Collection of Egyptian artifacts.[11] He also donated the Met's unofficial mascot, ablue decorative hippo from the EgyptianMiddle Kingdom's Twelfth Dynasty that is known as "William".
He was actively involved with the discovery and excavation of King Tutankhamun's tomb. The Harknesses andAlbert Lythgoe visitedHoward Carter at the site multiple times and Carter invited Harkness to witness theopening of King Tutankhamun's sarcophagus on February 12, 1924.[12]
In 1917, a year after Charles' death, Anna Harkness donated $3 million to Yale University to build theMemorial Quadrangle student dormitory in Charles' memory. In 1918, Anna Harkness established theCommonwealth Fund with an initial gift of $10 million, and Ned Harkness was made its president.
Ned Harkness and his wife made many contributions to educational buildings, includingSt Salvator's Hall at theUniversity of St. Andrews; Harkness Chapel and Harkness Dormitory atConnecticut College;Butler Library atColumbia University as well as the original portions of theColumbia University Medical Center and the undergraduate dormitories atBrown University[13] andConnecticut College—all of these were built through his philanthropy or that of his wife, Mary.
Between 1926 and 1930, Harkness made major donations to his alma mater, Yale, and Harvard to establishresidential college systems at each school. Harkness admired thecolleges of Oxford and Cambridge in England and proposed toYale PresidentJames Rowland Angell that he would fund a similar system for Yale'sundergraduate college to relieve overcrowding and improve social intimacy.[14] When theYale Corporation failed to accept Harkness' offer by 1928, he went to Harvard with a similar offer. Harvard's president,Abbott Lawrence Lowell, quickly accepted, and with a $10 million gift from Harkness in hand, eight houses forHarvard College were completed by 1931.[15] Dismayed, Yale administrators appealed to Harkness to reconsider his offer. In 1930 he agreed to give Yale $11 million for nineresidential colleges of its own.[14] Harkness persuaded Yale to retain his friendJames Gamble Rogers as the colleges' architect. He also made gifts that established theYale School of Drama, the first independent drama faculty in the country, and erected its theater.[16]
Around the same time as his Yale-Harvard philanthropy, Harkness sought to reform the pedagogical techniques of the country's elite boarding schools. AtPhillips Exeter Academy, he sought to innovate beyondrote learning by introducing theHarkness table method of instruction. Through further gifts, the method spread toSt. Paul's,The Lawrenceville School, andKingswood-Oxford School.[17] Harkness also made gifts toTaft School,The Hill School, andPhillips Academy.[18]
He established theHarkness Fellowships and founded thePilgrim Trust in the UK in 1930 with an endowment of just over two million pounds, "prompted by his admiration for what Great Britain had done in the 1914–18 war and, by his ties of affection for the land from which he drew his descent."[19] The current priorities of the trust are preservation, places of worship, and social welfare.
Edward and Mary Harkness had a number of homes in addition to Harkness House in New York. They spent summers at their Eolia mansion on Long Island Sound inWaterford, Connecticut, near where Mary had visited her grandparents in the summers. The home and 230 acres (93 ha) of ornamental gardens and grounds are now maintained by the State of Connecticut asHarkness Memorial State Park. They also owned another house on Long Island inManhasset, New York, on 186 acres, called Weekend, like their New York City mansion designed by James Gamble Rogers. They had additional houses in North Carolina and in San Diego, California, and a camp at theAusable Club in the Adirondacks. The Harknesses used their steam yachtSteveana (named after his parents) to commute between Long Island and the city. For longer trips they used their Pullman carPelham, named afterPelham, Massachusetts, where the Harkness family started in America.
Harkness was an avid golfer and was a member of theJekyll Island Club in Georgia,Cypress Point Club, The Creek Club in Locust Valley, the Valley Club of Monteceito in Santa Barbara andYeamans Hall Club outside Charleston, South Carolina, another James Gamble Rogers golf and winter community. He was also a member of theRacquet and Tennis Club in New York City.
Edward and Mary Harkness are buried inWoodlawn Cemetery inThe Bronx, New York City, which is today a National Historic Landmark.[20] The Harkness family mausoleum is stately, designed to resemble a small medieval church, and includes a walled and locked private garden. It is not marked with the family name.[21]
In addition to the family-funded foundations, Harkness, along with another wealthy neighbor, Edward Crowninshield Hammond, was the inspiration forEugene O'Neill's off-stage character "Harker", the "Standard Oil millionaire", inLong Day's Journey into Night, and on-stage figure "T. Stedman Harder" inA Moon for the Misbegotten.[22]
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