Joseph William Drexel

Joseph William Drexel
1889 bust of Joseph W. Drexel by sculptor John Quincy Adams Ward
Born	(1833-01-24)January 24, 1833 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died	March 25, 1888(1888-03-25) (aged 55) New York, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Banker, philanthropist
Parent(s)	Francis Martin Drexel

Joseph William Drexel (January 24, 1833 – March 25, 1888) was a banker, philanthropist and book collector.

He was the son of Francis Martin Drexel, and his siblings were Anthony Joseph Drexel and Francis Anthony Drexel. He attended the Central High School, Philadelphia, and traveled through Spain, Egypt, Syria, Turkey, and Greece. He married Lucy Wharton (1841–1912) and had four children: Katherine Drexel, Josephine Drexel, Elizabeth Wharton Drexel, and Lucy Wharton Drexel (both Elizabeth and Lucy married two sons of John A. Dahlgren).

Joseph Drexel was a partner in the firm of Drexel, Morgan and Company, where his brother Anthony was senior partner. In 1876, tired of battling the brusque J. Pierpont Morgan, Joseph retired from the business and devoted his life to philanthropic and civic organizations. He was chairman of New York Sanitary Commission, the commissioner of education, president of the New York Philharmonic Society, trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, founding trustee of the American Museum of Natural History, trustee of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and director of the Metropolitan Opera house. He owned a 200-acre (0.81 km²) farm near New York City, where people without work were housed, clothed, fed, and taught agriculture until they could find a job. He owned a large tract of land in Maryland, which was developed into Klej Grange, a planned community, where the lots are sold to poor people at cost. About 7,000 acres (28 km²) in Michigan were bought for the same purpose.