Bernard M. Baruch 1870 - 1965, U.S. Financier, Stock-market Speculator, Statesman & Political Consultant

Title

Bernard M. Baruch 1870 - 1965, U.S. Financier, Stock-market Speculator, Statesman & Political Consultant

Description

Bernard Mannes Baruch was a U.S. financier, stock-market speculator, statesman, and political consultant. After his success in business, Baruch devoted his time toward advising U.S. Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt on economic matters, and also became a philanthropist.

Baruch first walked the halls of the then College of the City of New York on the site of 17 Lexington Avenue as just one in a crowd of three hundred entering students. None could have guessed that his alma mater would eventually bear the name of this distinguished alumnus.

Baruch was the son of a German immigrant and an impoverished southern belle, the second of four children born in Camden, South Carolina in 1870. Moving to New York City at the age of ten, he struggled to adjust to his new surroundings. At the age of fourteen, he began his studies at the College of the City of New York (in those times there were no public high schools and a student could go directly to college if he met the entrance requirements). To save money he would walk the roughly forty blocks every day from his home on 60th street, saving a dime weekly; his entire allowance being only a quarter a week. His college days were a time of intellectual enlightenment as his knowledge of the world grew he too grew from a rather frail boy into a six foot three man of athletic build. After graduation, Baruch became a runner on Wall Street, trying to learn as much as he could about business, and become a partner at the age of twenty five at A.A. Housman & Company.

As the twentieth century progressed, Baruch’s fortune increased, and he began to want something more out of life.  His father’s words always made him reflect on the direction his life was taking, "I could not forget my father’s look the day I proudly informed him I was worth a million dollars. The kindly, quizzical expression told me, more clearly than words, that in his opinion, money making was a secondary matter… Of what use to a man are millions of dollars unless he does something worthwhile with them."

Creator

Library of Congress Catalog No. 2003690078

Date

1961

Source

http://cdn.loc.gov/service/pnp/ppmsca/05300/05374r.jpg

Relation

Rights

Sir Winston Churchill, British statesman, and Bernard M. Baruch, U.S. financier, converse in the back seat of a car in front of Baruch's home.

Source: Baruch College, City University of New York: The Baruch Family

Publisher

Library of Congress

Contributor

Library of Congress

Format

Medium: Photograph.

Language

English

Type

Figures

Identifier

Bernard M. Baruch, Financier, Speculator, Wilson, FDR, Philanthropy, Wall Street, New York

Coverage

Historic

Files

http://cdn.loc.gov/service/pnp/ppmsca/05300/05374r.jpg

Reference

Library of Congress Catalog No. 2003690078, Bernard M. Baruch 1870 - 1965, U.S. Financier, Stock-market Speculator, Statesman & Political Consultant, Library of Congress, 1961

Cite As

Library of Congress Catalog No. 2003690078, “Bernard M. Baruch 1870 - 1965, U.S. Financier, Stock-market Speculator, Statesman & Political Consultant,” Virtual Museum of Public Service, accessed March 28, 2024, https://vmps.omeka.net/items/show/405.