Joseph hirschhorn biography

Hirschhorn is of Ashkenazi Jewish descent.
The remarkable story of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, who donated the largest private art collection ever accumulated to the people of the United States.
The Hirshhorn Museum's founding donor, Joseph H. Hirshhorn (1899–1981), immigrated to New York from Latvia when he was eight years old.

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Record Unit 7449

Historical Note

Joseph Herman Hirshhorn was born in 1899 in Mitau, Latvia, the twelfth of thirteen children. His father died when Joseph was still an infant. In 1905 his mother emigrated with her children to the United States and settled the family in Brooklyn, New York, where she found work in a purse factory, six days a week, twelve hours a day. To keep the family afloat, the children had to help, and Joseph left school at the age of twelve to sell newspapers. By the age of fourteen, he was an office boy for the firm that later became the American Stock Exchange. In a short time, he became a chartist, charting stocks for an editor on Wall Street. In 1916 he took a small sum he had saved and launched himself as a broker, earning $168,000 the first year.

In 1924 Hirshhorn became a broker's broker, dealing in bank stock and unlisted securities. He made his first million long before he reached the age of thirty. In 1929 he distrusted the booming stock market and pulled out completely with four million dollars just two months before the crash.

In the 1930s, he be

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The Founding Donor

Joseph H. Hirshhorn
The Hirshhorn Museum’s founding donor, Joseph H. Hirshhorn (1899–1981), immigrated to New York from Latvia when he was eight years old. His widowed mother settled with her children (Joseph was the twelfth of thirteen) in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn.

In time, Joseph Hirshhorn would become a financier, philanthropist, and well-known collector of modern art whose gift to the nation of nearly 6,000 paintings, sculptures, drawings, and mixed media pieces established his namesake museum on the National Mall. The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden has been open to the public since October 4, 1974.

At the age of thirteen, Hirshhorn left school to become a newsboy. Two years later he took his first salaried job, on Wall Street in Manhattan, earning $12 per week. At sixteen, he launched his career as a financier by using his savings of $255 to become a stockbroker.

When he was eighteen, Hirshhorn acquired his first works of art: two etchings by the sixteenth-century German artist Albrecht Dürer, purchased for $75 each

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Joseph Hirshhorn

American businessman

Joseph Herman Hirshhorn
Joseph Hirshhorn, 1978
Born	(1899-08-11)August 11, 1899 Mitau, Latvia
Died	August 31, 1981(1981-08-31) (aged 82)
Occupation(s)	Entrepreneur, Financier, Art collector
Spouse(s)	Jennie Berman (m. 1922–div. c. 1941) Lily Harmon (m. 1945; div. 1956) Brenda Hawley Heide^[1] Olga Hirshhorn (née Zatorsky) (m.1964–his death) ^[2]
Children	Robin Gertrude, Gene Harriet, Gordon, Naomi Caryl, Amy, Jo Ann

Joseph Herman Hirshhorn (August 11, 1899 – August 31, 1981) was an entrepreneur, financier, and art collector.

Biography

Born in Mitau, Latvia, the twelfth of thirteen children, Hirshhorn emigrated to the United States with his widowed mother at the age of six. Hirschhorn is of Ashkenazi Jewish descent.

Hirshhorn went to work as an office boy on Wall Street at age 14. Three years later, in 1916, he became a stockbroker and earned $168,000 that year.^[3] A shrewd investor, he sold off his Wall Street investments two months before the collapse of 1