Arthur Lehman was an American investment banker. He was a partner in Lehman Brothers from 1901.
Background
Arthur Lehman was born in New York City, the third son and fifth of seven children--four boys, three girls--of Mayer and Babette (Newgass) Lehman. His mother was a native of Würzburg, Bavaria.
The influential banking firm of Lehman Brothers dates from 1850, when his father, the son of a Bavarian cattle merchant, emigrated at the age of twenty from his birthplace, Rimpar, a suburb of Wurzburg, to Montgomery, Alabama, in order to join his two older brothers, Henry and Emanuel, in a grocery business they had established. "H. Lehman & Bro. " became Lehman Brothers, and the brothers evolved from grocers into cotton merchants. The firm established an office in New York City in 1858, and in 1868, following the Civil War, made its headquarters there. The business expanded into other commodities--sugar, grains, coffee, and petroleum--and presently into investment and commercial banking.
Education
Arthur Lehman attended the private school of Dr. Julius Sachs in New York City and graduated from Harvard (A. B. ) in 1894.
Career
Lehman served as an apprenticeship with Lehman, Stern & Company, a New Orleans cotton firm in which his family had a controlling interest. He joined Lehman Brothers in 1898 and became one of five related partners three years later.
During the thirty-five years of his partnership, Lehman Brothers financed publicly more than one hundred large American and European companies and participated with other bankers, notably Goldman, Sachs & Company, in the underwriting of many additional enterprises. It pioneered in what were then new industries--department-store chains, food chains, mail-order houses, electric power and light, traction, automobile, aviation, and motion-picture companies--among them such companies as Sears, Roebuck (1906) and F. W. Woolworth (1912).
Arthur Lehman helped to organize the Marine Midland Trust Company and the Southern States Land & Timber Corporation, which in the early 1900's acquired and reclaimed approximately two million acres of land in the Upper Everglades, an important factor in the opening of lower Florida. Lehman was a director of the latter corporation and of the American Natural Gas Company, the Continental Can Company, Federated Department Stores, the Jewel Tea Company, the Underwood Elliott Fisher Company, the Radio-Keith-Orpheum Corporation, and the General American Investors Corporation, an investment company established in 1927 by Lehman Brothers in association with Lazard Frères.
In 1929 he became president of the newly formed Lehman Corporation, an investment trust with capital funds of $100, 000, 000. These two investment companies suffered during the depression but eventually emerged successfully. He was one of the organizers and an early president, as well as a substantial benefactor, of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York and served as treasurer (1917 - 1920) of the Joint Distribution Committee. He was a trustee of the New School for Social Research and of the Museum of the City of New York. On the thirtieth anniversary of his graduation from Harvard he gave his alma mater a new administration building, Lehman Hall. He was an early propagandist for daylight saving time and an amateur art collector, specializing in Italian and English fifteenth- and sixteenth-century tapestries, paintings, and illuminated books. He died suddenly, of an embolism, at his house in New York City and was buried from Temple Emanu-El in Kensico Cemetery, Valhalla, New York. In addition to his immediate family, he was survived by his two younger brothers, Herbert, then governor of New York and later a United States Senator, and Irving, chief judge of the Court of Appeals of New York.
Achievements
Lehman played a large part in transforming the firm of Lehman Brothers from a moderate-sized commodity business into a major investment banking house. He was co-founder of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York.
Personality
Lehman was a good-tempered, energetic man, of medium height and with a forthright manner, devoted to his family, friends, business, and charities. He enjoyed golf, cards, and travel.
Interests
Sport & Clubs
Golf
Connections
In 1901 Lehman married Adele, a daughter of Adolph Lewisohn, by whom he had three daughters: Dorothy, Helen, and Frances.
