Wikipedia:
Rodman Wanamaker |
Lewis Rodman Wanamaker, born February 13, 1863 died March 1928 in Atlantic City, N. J., was the second son of Philadelphia department store founder John Wanamaker and Mary Brown. He was a Republican and was a Presidential Elector for Pennsylvania in 1916.
Education
He entered Princeton University in 1881, graduating in 1886. In college he sang in the choir. A member and business manager of the Glee Club. He was a member of The Ivy Club (founded in 1879) the first eating club at Princeton University.
Aviation
Rodman Wanamaker was a pioneer in sponsoring record-breaking aviation projects and an early backer of transatlantic flight. Commander Richard E. Byrd piloted Wanamaker's airship America across the Atlantic days after Lindbergh's historic solo crossing.
Liturgical Arts
Rodman Wanamaker was a patron of many important commissions in the field of liturgical arts, and his legacy includes a silver altar at the chapel of the Queen's estate in Sandringham, England, as well as a processional cross for Westminster Abbey and important additions to his Philadelphia parish of St. Mark's Church, most notably the Lady Chapel where his first wife Fernanda is buried.
Business Career
In 1886 he joined his father's business, and married Fernanda Henry of Philadelphia. He went to Paris as resident manager in 1889, and lived abroad for more than ten years. When his father purchased the A.T. Stewart business in New York in 1896, he helped revolutionize the department store with top quality items.
Before John Wanamaker died he turned all his holdings of the two storesover to Rodman. John Wanamaker had been the sole owner of the business, with his death in 1922, complete control and management passed from father to son. No other retail merchandising business on so large a scale in the world was in the hands of a single man. The Wanamaker Organ in Wanamaker's (now Macy's) department store at 13th and Market Streets in Philadelphia, was enlarged by Rodman Wanamaker in 1924.
Rodman Wanamaker sponsored elaborate recitals in the Grand Court of the Philadelphia Store, often featuring Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra. As many as 15,000 people attended these free events, at which all display counters and fixtures were removed by an army of workers so that seating could be put in place. Under Wanamaker's guidance famous organists were brought to play the famous Wanamaker Organs in Philadelphia and New York, including Marcel Dupré, Louis Vierne, Marco Enrico Bossi and Nadia Boulanger. Toward the end of his life he put together a huge collection of stringed instruments, known as the Cappella, that featured violas and violins from such masters as Guarnerius and Stradivarius. The orchestra concerts came to an abrupt end with Mr. Wanamaker's death in 1928 and the stringed instruments were also sold at that time.
Wanamaker-Millrose Games
In 1908 Rodman Wanamaker initiated the Millrose Games, which became widely known as perhaps the most prestigious indoor track-and-field event in the world. They are now held at Madison Square Garden in New York City. (Millrose was Mr. Wanamaker's country estate near Jenkintown, Pa.) He also inaugurated the Wanamaker Mile, and reportedly began the tradition of playing The Star Spangled Banner at a sporting event.
Indian Photographs
Between 1908 and 1913, Rodman Wanamaker, sponsored three photographic expeditions to the American Indians intended to document a passing way of life and make the Indian "first-class citizens" to save them from extinction. Joseph K. Dixon was the photographer. On the first expedition, he made many portraits and captured scenes of Indian life. The expedition climaxed on the Crow Indian Reservation with the filming of a motion picture about Hiawatha. The second expedition in 1909 involved a motion filming a reenactment of the Battle of the Little Big Horn. In 1913, Wanamaker sponsored the groundbreaking for a National Memorial to the First Americans on Staten Island. The monument was never built. The third expedition, the "Expedition of Citizenship," took place in 1913. For it, the American flag was carried to many tribes, and their members were invited to sign a declaration of allegiance to the United States.
The resulting large bromide prints were presentation photographs, such collections having been placed in several museums. Mostly, the subjects are Blackfeet, Cheyennes, Crows, Dakotas, and other northern plains tribes. Dixon's negatives are at the Mathers Museum of Indiana University.
PGA
On Jan. 17, 1916 Rodman Wanamaker invited a group of 35 prominent golfers and other leading industry representatives, including the legendary Walter Hagen, to a luncheon at the Taplow Club in New York City for an exploratory meeting, which resulted in the formation of the Professional Golfers' Association of America (PGA) and donates its championship trophy. During the meeting, Wanamaker hinted the newly formed organization needed an annual all-professional tournament, and offered to put up $2,500 and various trophies and medals as part of the prize fund. Wanamaker’s offer was accepted, and seven months later, the first PGA Championship was played at Siwanoy Country Club in Bronxville, N.Y.
Since 1916, the PGA Championship has evolved into one of the world’s premier sporting events. Each summer, one of the nation’s most outstanding golf facilities hosts golf’s best professionals, as they compete for the Wanamaker Trophy.
World War I
He accepted an appointment during World War I as Special Deputy Police Commissioner in New York City, greeting distinguished guests from around the world and helping organize the victory parade for General John J. Pershing and the returning doughboys. He purchased more World War I bonds than anyone else in the United States, and generously allowed the use of his residences for the war effort, "virtually putting his enormous wealth at the disposal of the United States."
Family
Mr. Wanamaker had three children: Fernanda Wanamaker, John Wanamaker, Jr., and Marie Louise Wanamaker
Homes
His Palm Beach, Florida winter home, La Guerida (or "bounty of war"), was built in 1923 by Addison Mizner It was which was later purchased by Joe Kennedy for a paltry $120,000 in 1933 would later become John F. Kennedy's “Winter White House.” It sold to When John K. Castle, chief executive of Castle Harlan, and his wife Marianne, in 1995.
Links
http://www.pga.com/pgachampionship/history_overview.html
http://www.indiana.edu/~mathers/collections/photos/wanamake.html
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=3rd&navby=case&no=950996p
http://www.law.cornell.edu/usca/search/index.html?query=94%20AND%20113%20AND%20Munn
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