Over the course of his career on Wall Street, J.P. Morgan spearheaded the formation of several prominentmultinational corporationsincludingU.S. Steel,International HarvesterandGeneral Electric. He and his partners also held controlling interests in numerous other American businesses includingAT&T,Western Unionand 24 railroads. Due to his financial dominance, Morgan came to wield enormous influence over the nation's lawmakers and finances. During thePanic of 1907, he organized a coalition of financiers that saved theAmerican economyfrom collapse.
As theProgressive Era'sleading financier, J.P. Morgan's dedication to efficiency and modernization helped transform the shape of the American economy.[1][2]Adrian Wooldridgecharacterized Morgan as America's "greatest banker".[3]Morgan died in Rome, Italy, in his sleep in 1913 at the age of 75, leaving his fortune and business to his son,John Pierpont Morgan Jr.BiographerRon Chernowestimated his fortune at $80 million (equivalent to $1.2 billion in 2019), a net worth which allegedly promptedJohn D. Rockefellerto say: "and to think, he wasn't even a rich man."[4]
Morgan was born and raised inHartford, Connecticut, the son ofJunius Spencer Morgan(1813–1890) and Juliet Pierpont (1816–1884) of the influentialMorgan family.[5][6]Pierpont,[7]as he preferred to be known, had a varied education due in part to his father's plans. In the fall of 1848, he transferred to the Hartford Public School, then to the Episcopal Academy inCheshire, Connecticut(nowCheshire Academy), where he boarded with the principal. In September 1851, he passed the entrance exam forThe English High Schoolof Boston, which specialized in mathematics for careers in commerce. In the April 1852, an illness struck Morgan which became more common as his life progressed:Rheumatic feverleft him in such pain that he could not walk, and Junius sent him to theAzoresto recover.[8]
He convalesced there for almost a year, then returned to Boston to resume his studies. After graduation, his father sent him to Bellerive, a school in the Swiss village ofLa Tour-de-Peilz, where he gained fluency in French. His father then sent him to theUniversity of Göttingento improve his German. He attained passable fluency within six months, and a degree in art history; then traveled back to London viaWiesbaden, his formal education complete.[9]
Morgan went into banking in 1857 at the London branch ofmerchant bankingfirmPeabody, Morgan & Co., a partnership between his father andGeorge Peabodyfounded three years earlier. In 1858, he moved to New York City to join the banking house ofDuncan, Sherman & Company, the American representatives ofGeorge Peabody and Company. During theAmerican Civil War, in an incident known as theHall Carbine Affair, Morgan financed the purchase of five thousand rifles from an army arsenal at $3.50 each, which were then resold to a field general for $22 each.[10][11][12][13]Morgan had avoided serving during the war bypaying a substitute$300 to take his place.[10]From 1860 to 1864, as J. Pierpont Morgan & Company, he acted as agent in New York for his father's firm, renamed "J.S. Morgan & Co." upon Peabody's retirement in 1864. From 1864–72, he was a member of the firm of Dabney, Morgan, and Company. In 1871, he partnered with the Drexels of Philadelphia to form the New York firm of Drexel, Morgan & Company. At that time,Anthony J. Drexelbecame Pierpont's mentor at the request of Junius Morgan.[14]
Morgan had many partners over the years, such asGeorge W. Perkins, but always remained firmly in charge.[15]He often took over troubled business and reorganized their structures and management to return them to profitability, a process that became known as "Morganization".[16]His reputation as a banker and financier drew interest from investors to the businesses that he took over.[17]
Bond of the New Jersey Junction Railroad Company, issued 30. June 1886, reverse side with signatures of John Pierpont Morgan and Harris C. Fahnestock as trustees
In his ascent to power, Morgan focused on railroads, America's largest business enterprises.[18]He wrested control of theAlbany and Susquehanna RailroadfromJay GouldandJim Fiskin 1869; led the syndicate that broke the government-financing privileges ofJay Cooke; and developed and financed a railroad empire by reorganization and consolidation in all parts of the United States. He raised large sums in Europe; but rather than participating solely as a financier, he helped the railroads reorganize and achieve greater efficiency. He fought speculators interested only in profit and built a vision of an integrated transportation system. He successfully marketed a large part ofWilliam H. Vanderbilt'sNew York Centralholdings in 1883. In 1885 he reorganized the New York, West Shore & Buffalo Railroad, leasing it to the New York Central.[19]In 1886 he reorganized the Philadelphia & Reading, and in 1888 theChesapeake & Ohio. After Congress passed theInterstate Commerce Actin 1887, Morgan set up conferences in 1889 and 1890 that brought together railroad presidents to help the industry follow the new laws and write agreements for the maintenance of "public, reasonable, uniform and stable rates". The first of their kind, the conferences created a community of interest among competing lines, paving the way for the great consolidations of the early 20th century. In addition, J P Morgan & Co, and the banking houses which it succeeded, reorganized a large number of railroads between 1869 and 1899. Morgan also financed street railways, especially in New York City.[20]
A major political debacle came in 1904. TheNorthern Pacific Railwaywent bankrupt in thegreat depression of 1893. The bankruptcy wiped out the railroad's bondholders, leaving it free of debt, and a complex financial battle for its control ensued. In 1901, a compromise was reached between Morgan, New York financierE. H. Harrimanand St. Paul, MN railroad builderJames J. Hill. To reduce expensive competition in the Midwest, they created theNorthern Securities Companyto consolidate the operations of three of the region's most important railways: theNorthern Pacific Railway, theGreat Northern Railway, and theChicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad. The consolidators ran into unexpected opposition, however, from PresidentTheodore Roosevelt. An energetic trustbuster, Roosevelt considered the giant merger bad for consumers and a violation of the (until then) seldom-enforcedSherman Antitrust Act of 1890. In 1902, Roosevelt ordered his Justice Department to sue to break it up. In 1904 the Supreme Court dissolved the Northern Security company and the railroads had to go their separate, competitive ways. Morgan did not lose money on the project, but his all-powerful political reputation suffered.[21]
The Federal Treasury was nearly out of gold in 1895, at the depths of thePanic of 1893. Morgan had put forward a plan for the federal government to buy gold from his and European banks but it was declined in favor of a plan to sell bonds directly to the general public to overcome the crisis. Morgan, sure there was not enough time to implement such a plan, demanded and eventually obtained a meeting withGrover Clevelandwhere he claimed the government could default that day if they didn't do something. Morgan came up with a plan to use an oldcivil warstatute that allowed Morgan and theRothschildsto sell gold directly to the U.S. Treasury, 3.5 million ounces,[22]to restore the treasury surplus, in exchange for a 30-year bond issue.[23]The episode saved the Treasury but hurt Cleveland's standing with the agrarian wing of theDemocratic Party, and became an issue in theelection of 1896when banks came under a withering attack fromWilliam Jennings Bryan. Morgan and Wall Street bankers donated heavily to RepublicanWilliam McKinley, who was elected in 1896 and re-elected in 1900.[24]
After his father's death in 1890, Morgan took control of J. S. Morgan & Co. (renamed Morgan, Grenfell & Company in 1910). He began talks withCharles M. Schwab, president of Carnegie Co., and businessmanAndrew Carnegiein 1900, with the goal of buying Carnegie's steel business and merging it with several other steel, coal, mining and shipping firms. After financing the creation of the Federal Steel Company, he merged it in 1901 with theCarnegie Steel Companyand several other steel and iron businesses (including William Edenbirn's Consolidated Steel and Wire Company), forming the United States Steel Corporation. In 1901, U.S. Steel was the world's first billion-dollar company, with an authorized capitalization of $1.4 billion, much larger than any other industrial firm and comparable in size to the largest railroads.
U.S. Steel's goals were to achieve greatereconomies of scale, reduce transportation and resource costs, expand product lines, and improve distribution[25]to allow the United States to compete globally with theUnited KingdomandGermany. Schwab and others claimed the company's size would enable it to be more aggressive and effective in pursuing distant international markets ("globalization").[25]U.S. Steel was regarded as a monopoly by critics, as it sought to dominate not only steel but the construction of bridges, ships, railroad cars and rails, wire, nails, and many other products. With U.S. Steel, Morgan captured two-thirds of the steel market, and Schwab was confident that the company would soon hold a 75% market share.[25]However, after 1901, its market share dropped; and in 1903, Schwab resigned to formBethlehem Steel, which became the second largest U.S. steel producer.
Labor policy was a contentious issue. U.S. Steel was non-union, and experienced steel producers, led by Schwab, used aggressive tactics to identify and root out pro-union "troublemakers". The lawyers and bankers who had organized the merger—notably Morgan and CEOElbert Gary—were more concerned with long-range profits, stability, good public relations, and avoiding trouble. The bankers' views generally prevailed, and the result was a "paternalistic" labor policy. (U.S. Steel was eventually unionized in the late 1930s.)[26]
Morgan's role in the economy was denounced as overpowering in this political cartoon
ThePanic of 1907was a financial crisis that almost crippled the American economy. Major New York banks were on the verge of bankruptcy and there was no mechanism to rescue them, until Morgan stepped in to help resolve the crisis.[27][28]Treasury SecretaryGeorge B. Cortelyouearmarked $35 million of federal money to deposit in New York banks.[29]Morgan then met with the nation's leading financiers in his New York mansion, where he forced them to devise a plan to meet the crisis.James Stillman, president of the National City Bank, also played a central role. Morgan organized a team of bank and trust executives which redirected money between banks, secured further international lines of credit, and bought up the plummeting stocks of healthy corporations.[27]
A delicate political issue arose regarding the brokerage firm of Moore and Schley, which was deeply involved in a speculative pool in the stock of theTennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company. Moore and Schley had pledged over $6 million of the Tennessee Coal and Iron (TCI) stock for loans among the Wall Street banks. The banks had called the loans, and the firm could not pay. If Moore and Schley should fail, a hundred more failures would follow and then all Wall Street might go to pieces. Morgan decided they had to save Moore and Schley. TCI was one of the chief competitors of U.S. Steel and it owned valuable iron and coal deposits. Morgan controlled U.S. Steel and he decided it had to buy the TCI stock from Moore and Schley. Elbert Gary, head of U.S. Steel, agreed, but was concerned there would beantitrustimplications that could cause grave trouble for U.S. Steel, which was already dominant in the steel industry. Morgan sent Gary to see PresidentTheodore Roosevelt, who promised legal immunity for the deal. U.S. Steel thereupon paid $30 million for the TCI stock and Moore and Schley was saved. The announcement had an immediate effect; by November 7, 1907, the panic was over. The crisis underscored the need for a powerful oversight mechanism.[27]
Vowing never to let it happen again, and realizing that in a future crisis there was unlikely to be another Morgan, in 1913 banking and political leaders, led by SenatorNelson Aldrich, devised a plan that resulted in the creation of theFederal Reserve Systemin 1913.[30]
"I Like a Little Competition"—J. P. MorganbyArt Young. Cartoon relating to the answer Morgan gave when asked whether he disliked competition at thePujo Committee.[31]
While conservatives in theProgressive Erahailed Morgan for his civic responsibility, his strengthening of the national economy, and his devotion to the arts and religion, the left wing viewed him as one of the central figures in the system it rejected.[32]Morgan redefined conservatism in terms of financial prowess coupled with strong commitments to religion and high culture.[33]
Enemies of banking attacked Morgan for the terms of his loan of gold to thefederal governmentin the 1895 crisis and, together with writerUpton Sinclair, they attacked him for the financial resolution of thePanic of 1907. They also attempted to attribute to him the financial ills of theNew York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. In December 1912, Morgan testified before thePujo Committee, a subcommittee of theHouse Banking and Currency committee. The committee ultimately concluded that a small number of financial leaders was exercising considerable control over many industries. The partners of J.P. Morgan & Co. and directors of First National andNational City Bankcontrolled aggregate resources of $22.245 billion, whichLouis Brandeis, later aU.S. Supreme Court Justice, compared to the value of all the property in the twenty-two states west of theMississippi River.[34]
In 1900, the inventorNikola Teslaconvinced Morgan he could build a trans-Atlantic wireless communication system (eventually sited atWardenclyffe) that would outperform the short range radio wave-based wireless telegraph system then being demonstrated byGuglielmo Marconi. Morgan agreed to give Tesla $150,000 (equivalent to $4,609,800 in 2019) to build the system in return for a 51% control of the patents. Almost as soon as the contract was signed Tesla decided to scale up the facility to include his ideas of terrestrialwireless power transmissionto make what he thought was a more competitive system.[35]Morgan considered Tesla's changes, and requests for the additional amounts of money to build it, a breach of contract and refused to fund the changes. With no additional investment capital available, the project at Wardenclyffe was abandoned in 1906, and never became operational.[35][36]
Morgan suffered a rare business defeat in 1902 when he attempted to enter theLondon Undergroundfield. Transit magnateCharles Tyson Yerkesthwarted Morgan's effort to obtain parliamentary authority to build thePiccadilly, City and North East London Railway, a subway line that would have competed with "Tube" lines controlled by Yerkes. Morgan called Yerkes' coup "the greatest rascality and conspiracy I ever heard of".[37]
In 1902, J.P. Morgan & Co. financed the formation ofInternational Mercantile Marine Company(IMMC), an Atlantic shipping company which absorbed several major American and British lines in an attempt to monopolize the shipping trade. IMMC was a holding company that controlled subsidiary corporations that had their own operating subsidiaries. Morgan hoped to dominate transatlantic shipping through interlocking directorates and contractual arrangements with the railroads, but that proved impossible because of the unscheduled nature of sea transport, American antitrust legislation, and an agreement with the British government. One of IMMC's subsidiaries was theWhite Star Line, which owned theRMSTitanic. The ship's famous sinking in 1912, the year before Morgan's death, was a financial disaster for IMMC, which was forced to apply for bankruptcy protection in 1915. Analysis of financial records shows that IMMC was over-leveraged and suffered from inadequate cash flow causing it to default on bond interest payments. Saved byWorld War I, IMMC eventually re-emerged as theUnited States Lines, which went bankrupt in 1986.[38][39]
After the death of his father in 1890, Morgan gained control ofJ. S. Morgan & Co(renamed Morgan, Grenfell & Company in 1910). Morgan began negotiations withCharles M. Schwab, president ofCarnegie Co., and businessmanAndrew Carnegiein 1900 with the intention of buying Carnegie's business and several other steel and iron businesses to consolidate them to create theUnited States Steel Corporation.[25]Carnegie agreed to sell the business to Morgan for $480 million.[25][41]The deal was closed without lawyers and without a written contract. News of the industrial consolidation arrived to newspapers in mid-January 1901. U.S. Steel was founded later that year with an authorizedcapitalizationof $1.4 billion, the first billion-dollar company in the world.[42]
Morgan was a member of theUnion Clubin New York City. When his friend,Erie Railroadpresident John King, wasblack-balled, Morgan resigned and organized theMetropolitan Clubof New York.[43]He donated the land on 5th Avenue and 60th Street at a cost of $125,000, and commandedStanford Whiteto "...build me a club fit for gentlemen, forget the expense..."[citation needed]He invited King in as a charter member and served as club president from 1891 to 1900.[44]
In 1861, Morgan married Amelia Sturges, called Mimi (1835–1862). She died the following year. He married Frances Louisa Tracy, known as Fanny (1842–1924), on May 31, 1865. They had four children:
Self-conscious about hisrosacea, Morgan hated being photographed
Morgan often had a tremendous physical effect on people; one man said that a visit from Morgan left him feeling "as if a gale had blown through the house."[4]Morgan was physically large with massive shoulders, piercing eyes, and a purple nose. He was known to dislike publicity and hated being photographed; as a result of his self-consciousness of his rosacea, all of his professional portraits were retouched.[46]His deformed nose was due to a disease calledrhinophyma, which can result from rosacea. As the deformity worsens, pits, nodules, fissures, lobulations, and pedunculation contort the nose. This condition inspired the crude taunt "Johnny Morgan's nasal organ has a purple hue."[47]Surgeons could have shaved away the rhinophymous growth of sebaceous tissue during Morgan's lifetime, but as a child he suffered from infantile seizures, and Morgan's son-in-law, Herbert L. Satterlee, has speculated that he did not seek surgery for his nose because he feared the seizures would return.[48]His social and professional self-confidence were too well established to be undermined by this affliction. It appeared as if he dared people to meet him squarely and not shrink from the sight, asserting the force of his character over the ugliness of his face.[49]
Morgan smoked dozens of cigars per day and favored large Havana cigars dubbedHercules' Clubsby observers.[50]
Morgan was a lifelong member of theEpiscopal Church, and by 1890 was one of its most influential leaders.[51]He was a founding member of theChurch Club of New York, an Episcopal private member's club in Manhattan.[52]In 1910, theGeneral Conventionof the Episcopal Church established a commission, proposed by BishopCharles Brent, to implement a world conference of churches to address their differences in their “faithandorder.” Morgan was so impressed by the proposal for such a conference that he contributed $100,000 to finance the commission's work.[53]
Early view (c. 1855) of 229, 225 and 219 Madison Avenue before the street was paved
His house at 219 Madison Avenue was originally built in 1853 byJohn Jay Phelpsand purchased by Morgan in 1882.[54]It became the first electrically lit private residence in New York. His interest in the new technology was a result of his financingThomas Alva Edison'sEdison Electric Illuminating Companyin 1878.[55]It was there that a reception of 1,000 people was held for the marriage of Juliet Morgan and William Pierson Hamilton on April 12, 1894, where they were given a favorite clock of Morgan's. Morgan also owned East Island inGlen Cove, New York, where he had a large summer house.
An avid yachtsman, Morgan owned several large yachts, the first being theCorsair, built byWilliam Cramp & Sonsfor Charles J. Osborn (1837-1885) and launched on May 26, 1880. Charles J. Osborn wasJay Gould's private banker. Morgan bought the yacht in 1882.[56]The well-known quote, "If you have to ask the price, you can't afford it" is commonly attributed to Morgan in response to a question about the cost of maintaining a yacht, although the story is unconfirmed.[57]A similarly unconfirmed legend attributes the quote to his son,J. P. Morgan Jr., in connection with the launching of the son's yachtCorsair IVatBath Iron Worksin 1930.
Morgan was scheduled to travel on the ill-fated maiden voyage of theRMS Titanic, but canceled at the last minute, choosing to remain at a resort inAix-les-Bains, France.[58]TheWhite Star Line, which operatedTitanic, was part of Morgan's International Mercantile Marine Company, and Morgan was to have his own private suite and promenade deck on the ship. In response to the sinking ofTitanic, Morgan purportedly said, "Monetary losses amount to nothing in life. It is the loss of life that counts. It is that frightful death."[59]
Morgan was a notable collector of books, pictures, paintings, clocks and other art objects, many loaned or given to theMetropolitan Museum of Art(of which he was president and was a major force in its establishment), and many housed in his London house and in his private library on 36th Street, nearMadison Avenuein New York City.
For a number of years the British artist and art critic Roger Fry worked for the Museum, and in effect for Morgan, as a collector.[60]
His son, J. P. Morgan Jr., made thePierpont Morgan Librarya public institution in 1924 as a memorial to his father, and keptBelle da Costa Greene, his father's private librarian, as its first director.[61]
By the turn of the century, Morgan had become one of America's most important collectors of gems and had assembled the most important gem collection in the U.S. as well as of American gemstones (over 1,000 pieces).Tiffany & Co.assembled his first collection under their Chief Gemologist,George Frederick Kunz. The collection was exhibited at the World's Fair in Paris in 1889. The exhibit won two golden awards and drew the attention of important scholars, lapidaries, and the general public.[62]
George Frederick Kunz continued to build a second, even finer, collection which was exhibited in Paris in 1900. These collections have been donated to theAmerican Museum of Natural Historyin New York where they were known as the Morgan-Tiffany and the Morgan-Bement collections.[63]In 1911 Kunz named a newly found gem after his best customermorganite.
Morgan was a patron to photographerEdward S. Curtis, offering Curtis $75,000 in 1906, to create a series on theAmerican Indians.[64]Curtis eventually published a 20-volume work entitledThe North American Indian.[65]Curtis also produced a motion picture,In the Land of the Head Hunters(1914), which was restored in 1974 and re-released asIn the Land of the War Canoes. Curtis was also famous for a 1911magic lanternslide showThe Indian Picture Operawhich used his photos and original musical compositions by composerHenry F. Gilbert.[66]
Morgan died while traveling abroad on March 31, 1913, just shy of his 76th birthday. He died in his sleep at the Grand Hotel Plaza in Rome, Italy. His body was brought back to America aboard theSS France, a French Line passenger ship.[67]Flags on Wall Street flew athalf-staff, and in an honor usually reserved for heads of state, the stock market closed for two hours when his body passed through New York City.[68]His body was brought to lie in his home and adjacent library the first night of arrival in New York City. His remains were interred in theCedar Hill Cemeteryin his birthplace ofHartford, Connecticut. His son,John Pierpont "Jack" Morgan Jr., inherited the banking business.[69]He bequeathed his mansion and large book collections to theMorgan Library & Museumin New York.
His estate was worth $68.3 million ($1.39 billion in today's dollars based onCPI, or $25.2 billion based on share of GDP), of which about $30 million represented his share in the New York and Philadelphia banks. The value of his art collection was estimated at $50 million.[70]
A contemporary literary biography of Morgan is used as an allegory for the financial environment in America after World War I in the second volume,Nineteen Nineteen, ofJohn Dos Passos'U.S.A.trilogy.
Morgan is believed to have been the model for Walter Parks Thatcher (played byGeorge Coulouris), guardian of the youngCitizen Kane(film directed byOrson Welles) with whom he has a tense relationship—Kane blaming Thatcher for destroying his childhood.[77]
According to Phil Orbanes, former Vice President of Parker Brothers, theRich Uncle Pennybagsof the American version of the board gameMonopolyis modeled after J. P. Morgan.[78]
My Name Is Morgan (But It Ain't J.P.)– 1906 popular song released as anEdison cylinderrecording, words by Will A. Mahoney, music byHalsey K. Mohr, sung byBob Roberts. Originally released as a "coon song" but revised over the years, a poor man named Morgan tells his girlfriend not to mistake him for a rich man.[80][81]
^Jean Strouse,Morgan: American Financier(1999) pp 223-62.
^Albro Martin, Albro. "Crisis of Rugged Individualism: The West Shore-South Pennsylvania Railroad Affair, 1880-1885."Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography93.2 (1969): 218-243.online
^Vincent P. Carosso,The Morgans: Private International Bankers, 1854-1913(1987) pp 219-69, 352-96.
^Heather A. Warren,Religion in America: Theologians of a New World Order: Rheinhold Niebuhr and the Christian Realists, 1920-1948(Oxford University Press, 1997), 16.
^"J. P. Morgan Home, 219 Madison Avenue".Digital Culture of Metropolitan New York. Digital Culture of Metropolitan New York is a service of the Metropolitan New York Library Council. RetrievedMarch 15,2015.
^Morgan and His Gem Collection; George Frederick Kunz: Gems and Precious Stones of North America, New York, 1890, accessed online February 20, 2007.
^Morgan and His Gem Collections; donations to AMNH; in George Frederick Kunz: History of Gems Found in North Carolina, Raleigh, 1907, accessed online February 20, 2007.
^"Biography".Edward S. Curtis. Seattle: Flury & Company. p. 4. Archived fromthe originalon August 7, 2012. RetrievedAugust 7,2012.
Brands, H.W.Masters of Enterprise: Giants of American Business from John Jacob Astor and J. P. Morgan to Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey(1999), pp. 64–79
Bryman, Jeremy.J. P. Morgan: Banker to a Growing Nation : Morgan Reynolds Publishing (2001)ISBN1-883846-60-9, for middle schools
Carosso, Vincent P.The Morgans: Private International Bankers, 1854–1913.Harvard U. Press, 1987. 888 pp. ISBN978-0-674-58729-8
Chernow, Ron.The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance, (2001)ISBN0-8021-3829-2
Morris, Charles R.The Tycoons: How Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J. P. Morgan Invented the American Supereconomy(2005)ISBN978-0-8050-8134-3
Carosso, Vincent P.Investment Banking in America: A HistoryHarvard University Press (1970)
De Long, Bradford. "Did JP Morgan's Men Add Value?: An Economist's Perspective on Financial Capitalism," in Peter Temin, ed.,Inside the Business Enterprise: Historical Perspectives on the Use of Information(1991) pp. 205–36; shows firms with a Morgan partner on their board had higher stock prices (relative to book value) than their competitors
Forbes, John Douglas.J. P. Morgan Jr. 1867–1943(1981). 262 pp. biography of his son
Fraser, Steve.Every Man a Speculator: A History of Wall Street in American LifeHarperCollins (2005)
Garraty, John A.Right-Hand Man: The Life of George W. Perkins. (1960)ISBN978-0-313-20186-8; Perkins was a top aide 1900–1910
Garraty, John A. "The United States Steel Corporation Versus Labor: The Early Years,"Labor History19601(1): 3–38
Giedeman, Daniel C. "J. P. Morgan, the Clayton Antitrust Act, and Industrial Finance-Constraints in the Early Twentieth Century",Essays in Economic and Business History, 2004 22: 111–126
Hannah, Leslie. "J. P. Morgan in London and New York before 1914,"Business History Review85 (Spring 2011) 113–50
