Morris Ketchum Jesup

Morris Ketchum Jesup (June 21, 1830 – January 22, 1908), was an American banker and philanthropist. He was the president of the American Museum of Natural History.

Morris Jesup was born at Westport, Connecticut in 1830, the son of Charles Jesup and Abigail Sherwood. He was descended from Edward Jessup of the Stamford, New Haven Colony, an early settler in Middleburg, Long Island, now Elmhurst, Queens. Edward later became owner of a large estate in what is now Hunts Point, Bronx. In 1854 Morris married Maria van Antwerp DeWitt (1834–1914). He died at home in New York City in 1908, and is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.

In 1842 he went to New York City, where after some experience in business, he established a banking house in 1852. In 1856 he organized the banking firm of MK Jesup & Company, which after two reorganizations became Cuyler, Morgan & Jesup. He became widely known as a financier, retiring from active business in 1884.

Before his retirement, he was already active in a wide variety of philanthropic endeavors. Jesup was one of the organizers of the United States Christian Commission during the Civil War, which helped provide care for wounded soldiers. He was one of the founders of the Young Men's Christian Association, and served as its president in New York in 1872.

After 1860 he helped found and served as president of the Five Points House of Industry in New York, a type of settlement house in Lower Manhattan to teach new European immigrants the skills needed in the United States. In 1881, he became president of the New York City Mission and Tract Society. He donated the funds for construction of the Society's DeWitt (his father-in-law) Memorial Church in Rivington Street on the Lower East Side, a center of immigrant settlement. Jesup contributed funds and worked personally to better social conditions in New York, in a period when the city was struggling to aid many poor immigrants from rural areas of southern and eastern Europe, including the Russian Empire. The Woman's Hospital in New York City received $100,000.

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