Morgan, John Pierpont, Jr (1867–1943)

US banker and philanthropist. He became the head of the Morgan banking house after the death of his father, John Pierpont Morgan, in 1913. In World War I he organized a New York bankers' syndicate to underwrite a massive loan to the Allies. He acted for the British and French governments as agent for the purchase of supplies in the USA, and also for the US government when it entered the war in 1917. In his lifetime he gave $36 million to charitable and public institutions, including $9 million to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.

Morgan started the construction of the firm's head office on Wall Street, New York, in 1913, after taking over as senior managing partner. As US agent for Allied countries during World War I, the Morgan banking house organized syndicates to underwrite huge funds in bonds (one issue was valued at $500 million) and purchased millions of US dollars worth of military supplies. In the post-war period his firm floated securities of foreign governments and corporations (about $2 billion) for European construction work.

Morgan was born in Irvington, New York. He graduated from Harvard University, Massachusetts, in 1889 and became a member of his father's banking firm in 1892, working first in the London, England, branch of Morgan Grenfell for eight years and then in the John Pierpont Morgan Company, New York. Whilst in New York he was involved in the restructuring of some prominent US corporations.

On his father's death, he inherited his art collections, and became the director of New York Central and Hudson River Railroad. In 1920 he gave his London house at Princes Gate to the US embassy. He gave $15 million to the Pierpont Morgan Library and $4 million to a New York hospital. In 1923 he made over the library to trustees, as an institution to be used for research by the world's scholars. The library, valued at $8.5 million, had been collected by his father and himself in a marble building near the family home in East 36th Street, New York. It contained about 25,000 volumes, comprising illuminated manuscripts, early printed books, and examples of the work of famous presses.

After the Wall Street Crash of 1929, hundreds of investment firms went out of business and Morgan oversaw one of the largest structural changes in US banking history. The Banking Act of 1933 separated commercial and investment banking activities so several partners left in 1935 to form the securities firm of Morgan Stanley. In 1940 Morgan stepped up as senior partner to chair the newly-incorporated company, J P Morgan & Co, Inc. The company's first public stock offering followed in 1942.