Spencer Trask
Encyclopedia
Spencer Trask was an American financier
, philanthropist
, and venture capitalist. Beginning in the 1870s, Trask began investing and supporting entrepreneurs, including Thomas Edison
's invention of the electric light bulb and his electricity network. In 1896 he reorganized the New York Times, becoming its majority shareholder and chairman.
Along with his financial acumen, Trask was a generous philanthropist, a leading patron of the arts, a strong supporter of education, and a champion of humanitarian causes. His gifts to his alma mater, Princeton University
, set a lecture series in his name that still continues to this day. He was also an initial trustee of the Teachers' College (now Teachers College, Columbia University
) and St. Stephen's College.
. After graduating from Princeton University
in 1866, Spencer Trask joined his uncle to form the investment firm Trask & Brown, which became Spencer Trask & Company in 1881. Trask was married in 1874 to Katrina Nichols
, an author.
Trask was often a supporter of new inventions in their experimental stages. He foresaw the potential of inventions such as the Marconi
wireless telegraph, the telephone
, the phonograph
, the trolley car, and the automobile
; "to all of these he gave of his time, his money and his judgment, to aid in their development."
Thomas Edison
, inventor of the light bulb, was financed and supported by Trask. For over 14 years he was president of the New York Edison Company, the world's first electric power company. The company became known as Consolidated Edison
. Trask was an original trustees of the Edison Electric Light Company, the predecessor to the General Electric
Company, being for many years a member of the executive committee.
In 1896, Adolph S. Ochs, was introduced to Trask by John Moody. Trask and his partner, George Foster Peabody
, were leaders of an investment group that had recently bought The New York Times
, thus averting bankruptcy. Trask made Ochs publisher and himself chairman as the New York Times was reborn. John Moody began statistical work at Spencer Trask before launching Moody's Investors Service.
With no close heirs, the Trasks began to entertain the idea of turning their 400 acres (1.6 km²), Saratoga Springs, New York
estate into a working community of artists and writers. Following his death, Mrs. Trask remarried George Foster Peabody
, and launched the Corporation of Yaddo
. This artist community has operated continuously ever since. Yaddo, the name of the estate, is said to have been coined by the Trask's young daughter Christina, who amused her father by her mispronunciation of the numerous dark spots on the lawn caused by the towering trees' shadows.
The results of the Trasks' legacy have been historic. John Cheever
once wrote that the "forty or so acres on which the principal buildings of Yaddo stand have seen more distinguished activity in the arts than any other piece of ground in the English-speaking community and perhaps the world." Collectively, artists who have worked at Yaddo have won 61 Pulitzer Prizes, 56 National Book Awards, 22 National Book Critics Circle Award
, a Nobel Prize
, and countless other honors. Many books by Yaddo authors have been made into films. Visitors from Cheever's Day include Milton Avery
, James Baldwin
, Leonard Bernstein
, Truman Capote
, Aaron Copland
, Philip Guston
, Patricia Highsmith
, Langston Hughes
, Ted Hughes
, Alfred Kazin
, Ulysses Kay
, Jacob Lawrence
, Sylvia Plath
, Katherine Anne Porter
, Mario Puzo
, Clyfford Still
, and Virgil Thomson
.
The success of Yaddo encouraged Spencer and Katrina to later donate land for a working women's retreat center as well, known as the Wiawaka Holiday House
.
Trask died in a train accident on New Year's Eve in 1909. In commemoration of his life, Daniel Chester French
was commissioned to create a statue for Spencer Trask. At a memorial service in the Saratoga city park, "The Spirit of Life
" was unveiled.
, a patron and member of the Municipal Art Society
of New York, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art
. At the time of his death, Trask's wealth had been greatly diminished by his own generosity.
, the school of pedagogy of Columbia University
. He was also actively interested in the Kindergarten Association, and for many years was closely identified with General Theological Seminary
.
Trask also founded a public lecture series at his alma mater, Princeton University
in 1891, "for the purpose of securing the services of eminent men to deliver public lectures before the University on subjects of special interest." Over the years, lecturers have included Niels Bohr
on "The Structure of the Atom" (1923–1924); Arnold J. Toynbee
on "Near Eastern Affairs" (1925–1926); T. S. Eliot
on "The Bible and English Literature," (1932–1933); Bertrand Russell
on "Mind and Matter" (1950–1951); and Margaret Mead
on "Changing American Character" (1975–1976).
. In New York what began as a local committee to aid the Armenians grew quickly into the National Armenian Relief Committee
. Its board included some of the most powerful men in the United States, including Supreme Court Justice David Josiah Brewer
, railroad executive Chauncey Depew
, Wall Street banker Jacob Schiff
, and church leaders Dr. Leonard Woolsey Bacon
and the Reverend Fredrick D. Greene. The Relief Committee recruited Clara Barton
to take Red Cross relief teams out of the country for the first time, to the Armenian provinces.
By the end of the year-long drive, Americans raised more than $300,000. In 1896, a Thanksgiving appeal was launched nationwide, and Americans from St. Paul to San Francisco to Boston gave thanks by sending money to Armenian widows and orphans of the massacres. Citizens of St. Paul boycotted buying turkey and gave their Thanksgiving food money to the cause.
, Grolier Club
, and National Arts Club
of New York.
Financier
Financier is a term for a person who handles typically large sums of money, usually involving money lending, financing projects, large-scale investing, or large-scale money management. The term is French, and derives from finance or payment...
, philanthropist
Philanthropist
A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...
, and venture capitalist. Beginning in the 1870s, Trask began investing and supporting entrepreneurs, including Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. In addition, he created the world’s first industrial...
's invention of the electric light bulb and his electricity network. In 1896 he reorganized the New York Times, becoming its majority shareholder and chairman.
Along with his financial acumen, Trask was a generous philanthropist, a leading patron of the arts, a strong supporter of education, and a champion of humanitarian causes. His gifts to his alma mater, Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
, set a lecture series in his name that still continues to this day. He was also an initial trustee of the Teachers' College (now Teachers College, Columbia University
Teachers College, Columbia University
Teachers College, Columbia University is a graduate school of education located in New York City, New York...
) and St. Stephen's College.
Biography
Spencer Trask was born in 1844 to Alanson and Sarah (Marquand) Trask in Brooklyn, New York. His father was a direct descendant of Captain William Trask, a leader in the formation of the Massachusetts Bay ColonyMassachusetts Bay Colony
The Massachusetts Bay Colony was an English settlement on the east coast of North America in the 17th century, in New England, situated around the present-day cities of Salem and Boston. The territory administered by the colony included much of present-day central New England, including portions...
. After graduating from Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
in 1866, Spencer Trask joined his uncle to form the investment firm Trask & Brown, which became Spencer Trask & Company in 1881. Trask was married in 1874 to Katrina Nichols
Katrina Trask
Katrina Trask , also known as Kate Nichols Trask, was an American author and philanthropist.- Life account :She was born Kate Nichols in Brooklyn, New York to George Little Nichols and Christina Mary Cole...
, an author.
Trask was often a supporter of new inventions in their experimental stages. He foresaw the potential of inventions such as the Marconi
Marconi Company
The Marconi Company Ltd. was founded by Guglielmo Marconi in 1897 as The Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company...
wireless telegraph, the telephone
Telephone
The telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other...
, the phonograph
Phonograph
The phonograph record player, or gramophone is a device introduced in 1877 that has had continued common use for reproducing sound recordings, although when first developed, the phonograph was used to both record and reproduce sounds...
, the trolley car, and the automobile
Automobile
An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...
; "to all of these he gave of his time, his money and his judgment, to aid in their development."
Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. In addition, he created the world’s first industrial...
, inventor of the light bulb, was financed and supported by Trask. For over 14 years he was president of the New York Edison Company, the world's first electric power company. The company became known as Consolidated Edison
Consolidated Edison
Consolidated Edison, Inc. is one of the largest investor-owned energy companies in the United States, with approximately $14 billion in annual revenues and $36 billion in assets...
. Trask was an original trustees of the Edison Electric Light Company, the predecessor to the General Electric
General Electric
General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
Company, being for many years a member of the executive committee.
In 1896, Adolph S. Ochs, was introduced to Trask by John Moody. Trask and his partner, George Foster Peabody
George Foster Peabody
George Foster Peabody was a banker and philanthropist.-Early life:...
, were leaders of an investment group that had recently bought The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, thus averting bankruptcy. Trask made Ochs publisher and himself chairman as the New York Times was reborn. John Moody began statistical work at Spencer Trask before launching Moody's Investors Service.
With no close heirs, the Trasks began to entertain the idea of turning their 400 acres (1.6 km²), Saratoga Springs, New York
Saratoga Springs, New York
Saratoga Springs, also known as simply Saratoga, is a city in Saratoga County, New York, United States. The population was 26,586 at the 2010 census. The name reflects the presence of mineral springs in the area. While the word "Saratoga" is known to be a corruption of a Native American name, ...
estate into a working community of artists and writers. Following his death, Mrs. Trask remarried George Foster Peabody
George Foster Peabody
George Foster Peabody was a banker and philanthropist.-Early life:...
, and launched the Corporation of Yaddo
Yaddo
Yaddo is an artists' community located on a 400 acre estate in Saratoga Springs, New York. Its mission is "to nurture the creative process by providing an opportunity for artists to work without interruption in a supportive environment."...
. This artist community has operated continuously ever since. Yaddo, the name of the estate, is said to have been coined by the Trask's young daughter Christina, who amused her father by her mispronunciation of the numerous dark spots on the lawn caused by the towering trees' shadows.
John Cheever
John William Cheever was an American novelist and short story writer. He is sometimes called "the Chekhov of the suburbs." His fiction is mostly set in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, the Westchester suburbs, old New England villages based on various South Shore towns around Quincy,...
once wrote that the "forty or so acres on which the principal buildings of Yaddo stand have seen more distinguished activity in the arts than any other piece of ground in the English-speaking community and perhaps the world." Collectively, artists who have worked at Yaddo have won 61 Pulitzer Prizes, 56 National Book Awards, 22 National Book Critics Circle Award
National Book Critics Circle Award
The National Book Critics Circle Award is an annual award given by the National Book Critics Circle to promote the finest books and reviews published in English....
, a Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
, and countless other honors. Many books by Yaddo authors have been made into films. Visitors from Cheever's Day include Milton Avery
Milton Avery
Milton Avery was an American modern painter. Born in Altmar, New York, he moved to Connecticut in 1898 and later to New York City.-Biography:...
, James Baldwin
James Baldwin (writer)
James Arthur Baldwin was an American novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and social critic.Baldwin's essays, for instance "Notes of a Native Son" , explore palpable yet unspoken intricacies of racial, sexual, and class distinctions in Western societies, most notably in mid-20th century America,...
, Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
, Truman Capote
Truman Capote
Truman Streckfus Persons , known as Truman Capote , was an American author, many of whose short stories, novels, plays, and nonfiction are recognized literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's and the true crime novel In Cold Blood , which he labeled a "nonfiction novel." At...
, Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...
, Philip Guston
Philip Guston
Philip Guston was a notable painter and printmaker in the New York School, which included many of the Abstract expressionists, such as Jackson Pollock and Willem De Kooning...
, Patricia Highsmith
Patricia Highsmith
Patricia Highsmith was an American novelist and short-story writer most widely known for her psychological thrillers, which led to more than two dozen film adaptations. Her first novel, Strangers on a Train, has been adapted for stage and screen numerous times, notably by Alfred Hitchcock in 1951...
, Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes
James Mercer Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist. He was one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form jazz poetry. Hughes is best known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance...
, Ted Hughes
Ted Hughes
Edward James Hughes OM , more commonly known as Ted Hughes, was an English poet and children's writer. Critics routinely rank him as one of the best poets of his generation. Hughes was British Poet Laureate from 1984 until his death.Hughes was married to American poet Sylvia Plath, from 1956 until...
, Alfred Kazin
Alfred Kazin
Alfred Kazin was an American writer and literary critic, many of whose writings depicted the immigrant experience in early twentieth century America....
, Ulysses Kay
Ulysses Kay
Ulysses Simpson Kay was an African American composer. His music is mostly neoclassical in style....
, Jacob Lawrence
Jacob Lawrence
Jacob Lawrence was an American painter; he was married to fellow artist Gwendolyn Knight. Lawrence referred to his style as "dynamic cubism", though by his own account the primary influence was not so much French art as the shapes and colors of Harlem.Lawrence is among the best-known twentieth...
, Sylvia Plath
Sylvia Plath
Sylvia Plath was an American poet, novelist and short story writer. Born in Massachusetts, she studied at Smith College and Newnham College, Cambridge before receiving acclaim as a professional poet and writer...
, Katherine Anne Porter
Katherine Anne Porter
Katherine Anne Porter was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist, essayist, short story writer, novelist, and political activist. Her 1962 novel Ship of Fools was the best-selling novel in America that year, but her short stories received much more critical acclaim...
, Mario Puzo
Mario Puzo
Mario Gianluigi Puzo was an American author and screenwriter, known for his novels about the Mafia, including The Godfather , which he later co-adapted into a film by Francis Ford Coppola...
, Clyfford Still
Clyfford Still
Clyfford Still was an American painter, and one of the leading figures of Abstract Expressionism.-Biography:...
, and Virgil Thomson
Virgil Thomson
Virgil Thomson was an American composer and critic. He was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music...
.
The success of Yaddo encouraged Spencer and Katrina to later donate land for a working women's retreat center as well, known as the Wiawaka Holiday House
Wiawaka Holiday House
Wiawaka is a holiday house for women. It has lake front property on Lake George, New York. It is one of the few remaining fully operational vacation/retreat centers which arose out of the women’s rights movement in the early part of the twentieth century...
.
Trask died in a train accident on New Year's Eve in 1909. In commemoration of his life, Daniel Chester French
Daniel Chester French
Daniel Chester French was an American sculptor. His best-known work is the sculpture of a seated Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.-Life and career:...
was commissioned to create a statue for Spencer Trask. At a memorial service in the Saratoga city park, "The Spirit of Life
The Spirit of Life
"The Spirit of Life" is a sculpture by American sculptor Daniel Chester French."The Spirit of Life" began as a commission for a memorial to the famous Wall Street financier Spencer Trask . Trask was a summer resident in Saratoga Springs, New York and a founder of the committee which was charged...
" was unveiled.
Arts
Trask was dedicated to the arts. In his lifetime he was president of the National Arts ClubNational Arts Club
The National Arts Club is a private club in Gramercy Park, New York City, New York, USA. It was founded in 1898 to "stimulate, foster, and promote public interest in the arts and to educate the American people in the fine arts". Since 1906 the organization has occupied the Samuel J...
, a patron and member of the Municipal Art Society
Municipal Art Society
The Municipal Art Society of New York, founded in 1893, is a non-profit membership organization that fights for intelligent urban planning, design and preservation through education, dialogue and advocacy in New York City....
of New York, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
. At the time of his death, Trask's wealth had been greatly diminished by his own generosity.
Education
Spencer Trask was a founder and chairman of the board of trustees for Teachers' CollegeTeachers College, Columbia University
Teachers College, Columbia University is a graduate school of education located in New York City, New York...
, the school of pedagogy of Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
. He was also actively interested in the Kindergarten Association, and for many years was closely identified with General Theological Seminary
General Theological Seminary
The General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church is a seminary of the Episcopal Church in the United States and is located in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan in New York....
.
Trask also founded a public lecture series at his alma mater, Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
in 1891, "for the purpose of securing the services of eminent men to deliver public lectures before the University on subjects of special interest." Over the years, lecturers have included Niels Bohr
Niels Bohr
Niels Henrik David Bohr was a Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum mechanics, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. Bohr mentored and collaborated with many of the top physicists of the century at his institute in...
on "The Structure of the Atom" (1923–1924); Arnold J. Toynbee
Arnold J. Toynbee
Arnold Joseph Toynbee CH was a British historian whose twelve-volume analysis of the rise and fall of civilizations, A Study of History, 1934–1961, was a synthesis of world history, a metahistory based on universal rhythms of rise, flowering and decline, which examined history from a global...
on "Near Eastern Affairs" (1925–1926); T. S. Eliot
T. S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...
on "The Bible and English Literature," (1932–1933); Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. At various points in his life he considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist, but he also admitted that he had never been any of these things...
on "Mind and Matter" (1950–1951); and Margaret Mead
Margaret Mead
Margaret Mead was an American cultural anthropologist, who was frequently a featured writer and speaker in the mass media throughout the 1960s and 1970s....
on "Changing American Character" (1975–1976).
National Armenian Relief Committee
In the 1890s, Trask led what some have called 'the first international human rights movement in American history,' in response to the Hamidian massacresHamidian massacres
The Hamidian massacres , also referred to as the Armenian Massacres of 1894–1896, refers to the massacring of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire, with estimates of the dead ranging from anywhere between 80,000 to 300,000, and at least 50,000 orphans as a result...
. In New York what began as a local committee to aid the Armenians grew quickly into the National Armenian Relief Committee
National Armenian Relief Committee
The National Armenian Relief Committee was formed out of the leadership given by the New York Armenian Relief Committee and became a loosely federated organization in response to the Hamidian massacres.-Organization :...
. Its board included some of the most powerful men in the United States, including Supreme Court Justice David Josiah Brewer
David Josiah Brewer
David Josiah Brewer was an American jurist and an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court for 20 years.-Early life:...
, railroad executive Chauncey Depew
Chauncey Depew
Chauncey Mitchell Depew was an attorney for Cornelius Vanderbilt's railroad interests, president of the New York Central Railroad System, and a United States Senator from New York from 1899 to 1911.- Biography:...
, Wall Street banker Jacob Schiff
Jacob Schiff
Jacob Henry Schiff, born Jakob Heinrich Schiff was a German-born Jewish American banker and philanthropist, who helped finance, among many other things, the Japanese military efforts against Tsarist Russia in the Russo-Japanese War.From his base on Wall Street, he was the foremost Jewish leader...
, and church leaders Dr. Leonard Woolsey Bacon
Leonard Woolsey Bacon
Leonard Woolsey Bacon was an American clergyman, born in New Haven, Connecticut. He was a social commentator and a prolific author on religious, social, and historical matters...
and the Reverend Fredrick D. Greene. The Relief Committee recruited Clara Barton
Clara Barton
Clarissa Harlowe "Clara" Barton was a pioneer American teacher, patent clerk, nurse, and humanitarian. She is best remembered for organizing the American Red Cross.-Youth, education, and family nursing:...
to take Red Cross relief teams out of the country for the first time, to the Armenian provinces.
By the end of the year-long drive, Americans raised more than $300,000. In 1896, a Thanksgiving appeal was launched nationwide, and Americans from St. Paul to San Francisco to Boston gave thanks by sending money to Armenian widows and orphans of the massacres. Citizens of St. Paul boycotted buying turkey and gave their Thanksgiving food money to the cause.
Other organizations
Throughout his life, Trask took a prominent part in municipal reform and local politics, especially in connection with the Gold Democrats. He was a member of the Union LeagueUnion League
A Union League is one of a number of organizations established starting in 1862, during the American Civil War to promote loyalty to the Union and the policies of Abraham Lincoln. They were also known as Loyal Leagues. They comprised upper middle class men who supported efforts such as the United...
, Grolier Club
Grolier Club
The Grolier Club is a private club and society of bibliophiles in New York City. Founded in January 1884, it is the oldest existing bibliophilic club in North America. The club is named after Jean Grolier de Servières, Viscount d'Aguisy, Treasurer General of France, whose library was famous; his...
, and National Arts Club
National Arts Club
The National Arts Club is a private club in Gramercy Park, New York City, New York, USA. It was founded in 1898 to "stimulate, foster, and promote public interest in the arts and to educate the American people in the fine arts". Since 1906 the organization has occupied the Samuel J...
of New York.