James Loeb
James Loeb | |
|---|---|
| Born | Error: Invalid birth date for calculating age |
| Died | 27 May 1933 (aged 65) |
| Occupation(s) | Financier, scholar of Hellenism, benefactor |
| Known for | Founder of the Loeb Classical Library; benefactor to Harvard University and the Juilliard School of Music |
James Loeb (; August 6, 1867 – May 27, 1933) was an American financier, scholar of Hellenism, and benefactor.
Biography
Born into a German-Jewish family, James Loeb was the second son of Solomon and Betty Loeb. He entered his father’s banking enterprise, Kuhn, Loeb & Co., in 1888, becoming a partner by 1894. Due to health issues, he stepped away from the firm in 1901.
In tribute to his mentor Charles Eliot Norton, Loeb initiated The Charles Eliot Norton Memorial Lectureship in 1907. Four years later, in 1911, he created and funded the Loeb Classical Library, bringing together prominent Anglo-American classicists to manage the series and arranging for its publication through Heinemann in London. Upon his passing, he donated both the Library and financial resources to Harvard University to establish The Loeb Classical Library Foundation and to advance classical scholarship.
Loeb was also instrumental in founding the Institute of Musical Art, which later merged into the Juilliard School of Music. That same year, he gifted his collection of Arretine pottery to Harvard’s Fogg Art Museum. Additionally, he provided substantial support to the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry during its formative years under Emil Kraepelin—his former psychiatrist—despite the contentious racial ideologies held by Kraepelin and his successor.
A significant portion of Loeb’s art collection was bequeathed to the Museum Antiker Kleinkunst in Munich (currently known as the Staatliche Antikensammlungen), where it is recognized as the "Sammlung James Loeb." He was affiliated with the English Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies. His exchanges with Aby Warburg played a key role in rekindling European interest in classical antiquity.
Translations
- Paul Delcharme, Euripides and the Spirit of His Dreams
- Maurice Croiset, Aristophanes and the Political Parties at Athens
- Auguste Couat, Alexandrian Poetry under the First Three Ptolemies, 324-222 B.C.
Further reading
- "Aby Warburg's Collaboration with James Loeb and Fritz Saxl" in McEwan, D. (2023). Studies on Aby Warburg, Fritz Saxl and Gertrud Bing (1st ed.). Routledge.
- James Loeb, 1887–1933: Kunstsammler und Mäzen, edited by Brigitte Salmen for the Schloßmuseum des Marktes Murnau, 2000. This German-language exhibition catalogue explores James Loeb’s life as a collector and patron, featuring contributions from Brigitte Salmen, Dorothea McEwan, Erika Simon, among others, including Loeb’s own biographical piece Our Father: A Memorial [privately printed, 1929].
- Olmstead, Andrea. “The Toll of Idealism: James Loeb—Musician, Classicist, Philanthropist.” The Journal of Musicology 14.2 (1996): 233–262.
External links
- Pages with script errors
- Articles with short description
- Age error
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- No local image but image on Wikidata
- 1867 births
- 1933 deaths
- American bankers
- American people of German-Jewish descent
- American philanthropists
- German bankers
- Loeb family
- American translators
- Staatliche Antikensammlungen
- Harvard College alumni
- 20th-century American Jews
- American emigrants to Germany