Morgenthau, Henry, Sr. (1856-1946)

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American Red Cross

Jane Addams et al. to William Howard Taft, December 30, 1911

Paul Underwood Kellogg to Jane Addams, December 27, 1911

Jane Addams to Lillian D. Wald, March 6, 1912

Paul Underwood Kellogg to Jane Addams, March 9, 1916

Paul Underwood Kellogg to Jane Addams, February 9, 1917

Emily Greene Balch to Jane Addams, August 7, 1920

George Redington Montgomery to Jane Addams, January 19, 1921

Alice Stone Blackwell to Jane Addams, April 17, 1921

Announcement, Association pour la Sauvegarde du Droit es Gens, 1915

Emily Greene Balch to William Jennings Bryan, September 7, 1916

John Dewey et al. to Andrew Carnegie et al. January 31, 1917

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Birth Date

1856-04-26

Death Date

1946-11-25

Birthplace

Mannheim, Germany

Biographical Text

Henry Morgenthau Sr. was a German lawyer and businessman. His father was a successful cigar manufacturer, but after the American Civil War, where there was a tobacco tariff, Morgenthau's family suffered financial difficulty. Because of this, they immigrated to New York in 1866. Morgenthau attended the City College of New York, and then Columbia Law School. He then worked as a lawyer but became wealthy due to investments in real estate. In 1912, he befriended Woodrow Wilson and contributed to his campaign, and in 1913 he was appointed the Ambassador of the Ottoman Empire. During the Armenian Genocide, Morgenthau urged the U.S. to intervene, but the U.S. government remained neutral. Morgenthau thus took it upon himself to meet with Ottoman leaders and attempt to end the genocide but met little success. He then created the Committee on Armenian Atrocities (later the Near East Relief) to raise funds for the Armenians and worked with the New York Times to constantly cover the genocide. In 1916, Morgenthau resigned due to the horrors of the genocide. In 1917, he went on a secret mission to persuade Turkey to abandon the Central Powers. After the war, Morgenthau attended the Paris Peace Conference and served as an advisor regarding Eastern Europe and the Middle East. He also worked with the Relief Committee for the Middle East, the Greek Refugee Settlement Commission, and the American Red Cross. In 1919 he led a fact-finding mission to Poland, which led to the Morgenthau Report. He was the American representative at the Geneva Conference in 1933.

Morgenthau married Josephine Sykes in 1882. They had four children, Helen, Alma, Henry Jr., and Ruth. Morgenthau died in 1946 after a cerebral hemorrhage.