Background
Grant was born on November 19, 1865, in New York City, a place with which his family on both sides had been actively associated since colonial times. His father, Gabriel Grant, of Scottish extraction, was a physician who served as a major and division surgeon throughout the Civil War, receiving a Congressional Medal of Honor for personal gallantry in action. His mother, Caroline Amelia Manice, came of a well-to-do family which for a long period lived in a beautiful country residence near Jamaica, Long Island, now within Belmont Park. Madison was the oldest of their four children.
Education
As the son of wealthy parents, Grant went to private schools in New York, was tutored for several years in Dresden, Germany, and traveled extensively in Egypt, Asia Minor, Greece, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, and Russia. He entered Yale as a sophomore, graduating in 1887 with a B. A. degree, and went on to take an LL. B. degree at Columbia in 1890.
Career
Though Grant carried on a legal practice, the law was never his primary concern. His major interests, early developed, were in animal life and the natural world on the one hand and the history of peoples on the other. He early became a hunter and explorer in the forests of North America, interested more in the discovery of new species than in the actual pursuit and killing of game. One such discovery was that of a unique form of caribou on the Alaskan peninsula, later named in his honor Rangifer granti. His consuming interest in zoology found tangible expression in the leading role he played in the founding of the New York Zoological Society in 1895, along with Theodore Roosevelt, Henry Fairfield Osborn, Elihu Root, C. Grant La Farge, and others. The Society's principal objective in its early years was the creation of the New York Zoological Park in the Bronx, an accomplishment made possible by the election of William Lafayette Strong as reform mayor of New York City in 1894, a campaign in which Grant and his brother DeForest actively participated. The need for an arterial highway to reach the Zoological Park led to the building of the Bronx River Parkway, the first parkway of its kind in any of the great eastern cities. Grant took a leading part in its planning, serving as president of the Bronx Parkway Commission, 1907-1925. His interest in animal life inevitably drew him into the field of wildlife protection and the conservation of natural resources. He wrote a series of articles on the great mammals of the North American continent and, in 1905, helped to organize the American Bison Society. In 1919 he joined Henry Fairfield Osborn and John C. Merriam in founding the Save-the-Redwoods League, dedicated to preserving the remaining groves of these giant California trees. Grant's interest in the history of peoples channeled principally towards ethnology and, more specifically, the question of immigration to the United States. He was perhaps best known to the general public for his adherence to the theory of the superiority of the so-called "Nordic" races. His first book on this subject, The Passing of the Great Race, appeared in 1916. It was followed by two collections edited in collaboration with C. S. Davison, The Founders of the Republic on Immigration, Naturalization, and Aliens (1928) and The Alien in Our Midst (1930). His final book, The Conquest of a Continent (1933), dealt with the racial elements in the settlement of America. From 1922 until his death Grant served as vice-president of the Immigration Restriction League; in 1924 he helped to frame the Johnson Act, which imposed the basic quota system. In line with his racial views, he was also active in the eugenics movement. Long a sufferer from arthritis, Grant died of a heart disease in New York City and was buried at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Tarrytown, New York.
Membership
President of the Bronx Parkway Commission (1907-1925); Vice-president of the Immigration Restriction League (1922-1937); President of the New York Zoological Society (1925-1937)
Personality
A man of distinguished appearance, over six feet tall and of a very upright carriage, a meticulous dresser, Grant had great self-assurance, was formidable in discussion or debate, and had great tenacity in carrying through any project or idea to which he was dedicated.
