Daniel Guggenheim
Encyclopedia
Meyer Guggenheim
Meyer Guggenheim was the patriarch of what became known as the Guggenheim family. He was born in Lengnau, Aargau, Switzerland, was of German Jewish ancestry and emigrated to the United States in 1847...
.
Biography
Born in Philadelphia, Daniel Guggenheim won a lead-silver price war with ASARCOASARCO
ASARCO LLC is a mining, smelting, and refining company based in Tucson, Arizona that mines and processes primarily copper. The company, a subsidiary of Grupo México, is currently in Chapter 11 bankruptcy...
in 1900, and the Guggenheims took over ASARCO in 1901. Daniel moved aggressively to add mining and smelting properties to the Guggenheim's mining empire. When World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
broke out in 1914, Daniel was ready to ramp up copper production worldwide to aid the Allied
Allies of World War I
The Entente Powers were the countries at war with the Central Powers during World War I. The members of the Triple Entente were the United Kingdom, France, and the Russian Empire; Italy entered the war on their side in 1915...
war effort—and the Guggenheim profits.
Murray N. Rothbard's Wall Street, Banks and American Foreign Policy, has a significant amount of information pertaining to Daniel Guggenheim, brother of Simon Guggenheim
Simon Guggenheim
Simon Guggenheim was an American businessman, politician, and philanthropist.-Life:He was the son of Meyer Guggenheim and Barbara Guggenheim, and was the younger brother of Daniel Guggenheim and Solomon R...
and son of Meyer Guggenheim
Meyer Guggenheim
Meyer Guggenheim was the patriarch of what became known as the Guggenheim family. He was born in Lengnau, Aargau, Switzerland, was of German Jewish ancestry and emigrated to the United States in 1847...
. He was a member of the National Security League
National Security League
The National Security League was a nationalistic, militaristic, and eventually quasi-fascist nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that supported the naturalization and Americanization of immigrants, Americanism, a strong military, universal conscription, meritocracy and government regulation of the...
, the driving force for moving the then-neutral USA into World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, which was headed by J.P. Morgan.
Aviation
During the war, Daniel's son Harry Guggenheim became a pilot and both became avid supporters of aviation technology. In the 1920s they established the Daniel Guggenheim MedalDaniel Guggenheim Medal
The Daniel Guggenheim Medal is an American engineering award, established by Daniel and Harry Guggenheim. The medal is considered to be one of the greatest honors that can be presented for a lifetime of work in aeronautics...
for achievement in aeronautics
Aeronautics
Aeronautics is the science involved with the study, design, and manufacturing of airflight-capable machines, or the techniques of operating aircraft and rocketry within the atmosphere...
and provided grants for aeronautics research at California Institute of Technology
California Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...
, Georgia Institute of Technology
Georgia Institute of Technology
The Georgia Institute of Technology is a public research university in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States...
, Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
, New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
, Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
, Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
, Syracuse University
Syracuse University
Syracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...
, the University of Akron
University of Akron
The University of Akron is a coeducational public research university located in Akron, Ohio, United States. The university is part of the University System of Ohio. It was founded in 1870 as a small college affiliated with the Universalist Church. In 1913 ownership was transferred to the City of...
, the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
, and the University of Washington
University of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
.
Alaska
Guggehheim also sparked controversy in the district of AlaskaAlaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
from 1906 onward. He was approached by Stephen Birch
Stephen Birch
Stephen Birch was the President of the Kennecott Copper Company and one of the most revered business men of his time. “Stephen Birch was one of the thousands who came north in 1898 seeking their fortunes. He found his high in the Wrangell Mountains of Alaska. Most sought wealth in gold; Birch...
, a wealthy miner with big hopes for the development of Alaska and its railroads, in regards to financing Birch's developing copper claims. Guggenheim and his brother formed a gentlemen's agreement
Gentlemen's agreement
A gentlemen's agreement is an informal agreement between two or more parties. It may be written, oral, or simply understood as part of an unspoken agreement by convention or through mutually beneficial etiquette. The essence of a gentlemen's agreement is that it relies upon the honor of the parties...
with Birch to form the Alaska Syndicate, which purchased just under half of the stock in Birch's company and all of the stock in the Copper River and Northwestern Railway
Copper River and Northwestern Railway
The Copper River and Northwestern Railway was a railroad built by the Kennecott Corporation between 1907 and 1911 to take copper ore from Kennicott, Alaska to Cordova, Alaska, a distance of . The railroad was built by thousands of workers, who laid tracks around glaciers, across canyons and...
. All of this sparked an "anti-Guggenheim" movement which was integral in political elections and appointments of 1908 in Alaska.