Anne Morgan (philanthropist)

All you want to know about Anne Morgan (philanthropist)

For other persons of the same name, see Anne Morgan (disambiguation).

Anne Morgan (philanthropist)

Born	July 25, 1873(1873-07-25)
Died	January 29, 1952 (aged 78)
Nationality	United States
Occupation	Philanthropist

Anne Tracy Morgan (July 25, 1873 — January 29, 1952) was an American philanthropist, the daughter of J. P. Morgan and the sister of J. P. Morgan, Jr., both financiers. She is most remembered for her relief efforts in aid to France during and after World War I and II. Morgan was educated privately, traveled frequently and grew up amongst the wealth her father had amassed.

She was awarded a medal from the National Institute of Social Science in 1915, the same year she published the story The American Girl. In 1932 she became the first American woman appointed a commander of the French Legion of Honor.

In 1903 she became part owner of the Villa Trianon near Versailles, France, along with Decorator/socialite Elsie De Wolfe and theatrical/literary agent Elisabeth Marbury. Morgan was instrumental in assisting her close friend Elsie de Wolfe in creating a career in interior decoration. Some credit DeWolfe with creating the profession itself, although this is a broad simplification.

The three ladies held court and became noted hostesses, affectionately referred to as "The Versailles Triumvirate". Also in 1903, along with DeWolfe, Marbury and Ann Vanderbilt she helped organize the Colony Club, the first women's social club in New York. This same coterie would in their later years, go on to create the exclusive neighborhood of Sutton Place along Manhattan's East River.

From 1917 to 1921 she took residence near the French front not far from both Soissons and the "Chemin des Dames" at Blérancourt and ran a large scale help organisation ( it employed several hundred people at a time, volunteers from abroad and localy recruited staff)financed partly from her inheritance, partly with the help of an active network in the States. This was active in helping civilians caught in the war and organised a health service which still exist in Soissons, a furniture workshop to provide basic furniture to bombed out families, a holiday camp for children and a mobile library which was taken over by the library in Soissons etc... She came back in 1939 to help the Soissons evacuees .

A four-story townhouse built in the Sutton Place neighborhood of Manhattan's Upper East Side in New York City for Anne Morgan in 1921 was donated as a gift to the United Nations in 1972. It is now the official residence of the United Nations Secretary-General.^[1]