William Mackay Laffan

Background

William MacKay Laffan was born in Dublin, Ireland, the son of Michael and Ellen Sarah FitzGibbon Laffan.

Education

He was educated at H. T. Humphrey's school at Blackrock and prepared for Dublin University at French College, Booterstown. After leaving Trinity College, Dublin University, he studied for a short time at St. Cecilia's School of Medicine.

Career

His interest in art had already shown itself and Laffan was artist to the Pathological Society of Dublin. At the age of twenty he was attracted by journalism and went to San Francisco, where as a reporter he exhibited a knack for humorous description. He became the first city editor of the San Francisco Chronicle when it was established in the latter part of 1868. With his own pencil he provided for the Chronicle the first illustrated journalism on the Pacific Coast. His service on the Chronicle and later as managing editor of the San Francisco Bulletin made him quickly familiar with many angles of practical newspaper work.

In 1870 Laffan went to Baltimore, where he worked as a reporter and soon became editor of the Baltimore Daily Bulletin, the ownership of which he later acquired. This newspaper, which became the Evening Bulletin, was devoted largely to art, literature, and science.

In 1877 he moved to New York City and was taken on the Sun by Charles A. Dana as dramatic critic. From that time until his death, with the exception of two years spent as art editor and general representative of Harper Brothers in London, his literary career was with the Sun. He became its publisher in 1884 and in 1887 he started the Evening Sun. Dana died in 1897 and on February 22, 1902, Laffan's name appeared in the Sun's editorial masthead as proprietor. Through his friendship with J. Pierpont Morgan he had been able to buy the control of the newspaper. Although the editorial direction of the paper remained with Edward Page Mitchell, who had been Dana's chief editorial writer for many years, Laffan was active in the supervision of every department. He wrote occasionally for the editorial columns, usually some brief and striking paragraph.

In 1904 he announced the Sun's support of President Roosevelt, whom the Sun had frequently opposed, in five words: "Theodore, with all thy faults--. " Except to his intimates he was a mysterious figure. His pride was so great as to exclude the ordinary vanities. He disliked publicity and avoided public appearances.

He was one of the group of connoisseurs assembled by J. P. Morgan when the latter became president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1904. Laffan was elected a trustee in 1905. As the principal art adviser of J. P. Morgan and Henry Walters, Laffan was responsible for the purchase of millions of dollars worth of treasures that were sent from Europe to American collections. He had much to do with the Metropolitan Museum's first archeological campaign in Egypt and when seized with his last illness was planning similar explorations in Mesopotamia. J. P. Morgan's will established in his honor the Laffan Professorship of Assyriology and Babylonian Literature at Yale University.

Achievements

• Laffan was known as the publisher and editor of the New York Sun. He was the founder of "Evening Sun" and Sun News Service. In art Laffan won high rank. His "Engravings on Wood" was published by Harpers in 1887. In 1897 he published "Oriental Ceramic Art" and in 1907 he edited the "Catalogue of the Morgan Collection of Chinese Porcelains".

Works

More photos

• book

  • Ireland: Crossroads of Art and Design, 1690–1840

    ( A sweeping survey of the arts of Ireland spanning 150 y...)

  • Catalogue of the Morgan Collection of Chinese porcelains

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • The New Long Island: A Hand Book of Summer Travel: Designed for the Use and Information of Visitors to Long Island and Its Watering Places

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

  • Oriental Ceramic art

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

  • Engravings on Wood, By Members of the Society of American Wood-Engravers, With an Introduction and Descriptive Text By..

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• He had a "Celtic temperament that boiled at low temperature, boiling behind a physiognomy betokening a habit of control imperturbable as ice at zero. His hatreds were so passionate that he could discern precious little good in the fiercely hated; no woman could be more tenderly considerate when affection existed" (Mitchell, post, p. 353)
  
  "There was no department of art to which he was not sympathetic and no department in which he had not expert knowledge" (R. W. De Forest, "Mr. Laffan's Part in the Development of the Metropolitan Museum, " the Sun, Nov. 20, 1909, p. 6)

Connections

In 1872 Laffan married Georgiana Ratcliffe of Baltimore.

Father:

Michael Laffan

Mother:

Ellen Sarah FitzGibbon Laffan

Spouse:

Georgiana Ratcliffe

Friend:

J. Pierpont Morgan