Daniel Huntington (1816-1906)
Oil on canvas, 1896
Gift of the Partnership for New York City, Inc.
NYSM 2003.41.7

Like the hero in a story by Horatio Alger, Morris K. Jesup rose from humble clerk to millionaire financier and philanthropist. Amassing a fortune through manufacturing, banking, and railroad development, Jesup epitomized the entrepreneurial spirit of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was president of the New York Chamber of Commerce, 1899-1907. As a founder and president of New York City’s American Museum of Natural History, he financed the Jesup North Pacific Expedition (1897-1902) to Siberia, Manchuria, and Sakhalin Island. As a research project of that museum’s Division of Anthropology, this was one of the most scientifically important anthropological investigations ever mounted.

Daniel Huntington painted Jesup’s portrait “from life” as a commission from the New York Chamber of Commerce. Huntington, a member of the National Academy, was a prolific and proficient painter of landscapes and genre scenes. He is most noted, however, for his numerous portraits of prominent Americans, including many New Yorkers.