Adele Lewisohn Lehman (May 17, 1882 – August 11, 1965) was an American philanthropist and member of the

Lehman family The Lehman family is a prominent family of Jewish German-Americans who founded the financial firm Lehman Brothers. Some were also involved in American politics. Members have married into the prominent Morgenthau, Loeb, and Bronfman families. The ...

Biography

Adele Lewisohn Lehman was born to a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family on May 17, 1882 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

, the daughter of Emma (née Cahn) and

Adolph Lewisohn Adolph Lewisohn (May 27, 1849 – August 17, 1938) was a German Jewish immigrant born in Hamburg who became a New York City investment banker, mining magnate, and philanthropist. He is the namesake of Lewisohn Hall (which formerly housed the Scho ...

.Jewish Women's Archive: "Adele Lewisohn Lehman 1882–1965" by Laurie Sokol
retrieved October 30, 2015 Her father and his brothers (Julius and

Leonard Leonard or ''Leo'' is a common English masculine given name and a surname. The given name and surname originate from the Old High German ''Leonhard'' containing the prefix ''levon'' ("lion") from the Greek Λέων ("lion") through the Latin ' ...

) were known as "copper kings" after making their fortune opening copper mines to fuel demand for copper wire with the advent of electricity; her father was also a leader in prison reform. Lehman attended the Anne Brown School and then

Barnard College Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Col ...

, where she was a member of the class of 1903.

Philanthropy

Coming from wealth and marrying into wealth, Lehman was a prominent philanthropist. Although Lehman was an honorary chairperson for the

Federation of Jewish Philanthropies UJA-Federation of New York (United Jewish Appeal⁣ – ⁣ Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York, Inc.) is the largest local philanthropy in the world. Headquartered in New York City, the organization raises and allocates funds annuall ...

(founded by her husband Arthur Lehman), most of her philanthropic efforts were secular. She was a board member of the New York Service for the Orthopedically Handicapped; was both a founder and board member of the Arthur Lehman Counseling Service; served as the president of the East Side Free School for Crippled Children; the Purple Box, an outlet for the sale of goods made by disabled women; served as director of the Adoption Bureau; was a board member of the New York Board of Charities; a member of the Crusade for Children (part of the

Child Welfare League of America The Child Welfare League of America (CWLA) is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization that coordinates efforts for child welfare in the United States, and provides direct support to agencies that serve children and families. The organization's visio ...

); served as vice president of the League of Women Voters until 1945; and served on the board of directors for the

Philharmonic Symphony Society of New York The New York Philharmonic, officially the Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York, Inc., globally known as New York Philharmonic Orchestra (NYPO) or New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra, is a symphony orchestra based in New York City. It is ...

(elected 1947); and was a board member of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society. In 1957, the Adele Lehman Hall at Barnard College was named in her honor; the hall held the Wollman Library until 2015.

Personal life

On November 25, 1901, she married

Arthur Lehman Arthur is a common male given name of Brittonic languages, Brythonic origin. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. The etymology is disputed. It may derive from the Celtic ''Artos'' meaning “Bear”. An ...

(1873-1936), son of Babette (née Newgass) and

Mayer Lehman Mayer Lehman (January 9, 1830 – June 21, 1897) was a German-born American businessman, banker, and philanthropist. He was one of the three founding brothers of the investment bank Lehman Brothers. Early life Mayer Lehman was born in 1830 to ...

. Arthur belonged to the prominent Lehman family: his father was a co-founder of

Lehman Brothers Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. ( ) was an American global financial services firm founded in 1847. Before filing for bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth-largest investment bank in the United States (behind Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, a ...

; brother

Herbert H. Lehman Herbert Henry Lehman (March 28, 1878 – December 5, 1963) was an American Democratic Party politician from New York. He served from 1933 until 1942 as the 45th governor of New York and represented New York State in the U.S. Senate from 1949 ...

, was a former governor and senator of New York; another brother,

Irving Lehman Irving Lehman (January 28, 1876 – September 22, 1945) was an American lawyer and politician from New York. He was Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals from 1940 until his death in 1945. Biography He was born on January 28, 1876, in New ...

, was a former judge of the New York state court of appeals. Together they had three daughters:

Dorothy Lehman Bernhard Dorothy Lehman Bernhard (April 22, 1903 – March 6, 1969) was a civic leader and philanthropist.Helen Lehman Buttenwieser (1905-1989), and

Frances Lehman Loeb The Lehman family is a prominent family of Jewish German-Americans who founded the financial firm Lehman Brothers. Some were also involved in American politics. Members have married into the prominent Morgenthau, Loeb, and Bronfman families. The f ...

(1906-1996). Lehman died of a

cerebral hemorrhage Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as cerebral bleed, intraparenchymal bleed, and hemorrhagic stroke, or haemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain, into its ventricles, or into both. It is one kind of bleed ...

on August 11, 1965 at her home in Purchase, New York. Lehman belonged to Temple Emanu-El in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the List of co ...

. All of the families marrying each daughter of Adele and Arthur Lehman (the Bernhards, the Buttenweisers, and the Loebs) were as well, members of famed Temple Emanu-El. She was also a championship tennis player havong won thirty-eight competitions. Lehman and her husband collected paintings, decorative arts, bronzes, ceramics, and tapestries from the 14th to 20th centuries.The Frick Collection: "Lehman, Adele Lewisohn, 1882-1965"
retrieved September 22, 2017 Their collection consisted of

Italian primitives Italian Renaissance painting is the painting of the period beginning in the late 13th century and flourishing from the early 15th to late 16th centuries, occurring in the Italian Peninsula, which was at that time divided into many political stat ...

, and works by

Henry Raeburn Sir Henry Raeburn (; 4 March 1756 – 8 July 1823) was a Scottish portrait painter. He served as Portrait Painter to King George IV in Scotland. Biography Raeburn was born the son of a manufacturer in Stockbridge, on the Water of Leith: a fo ...

, Jean Baptiste Greuze,

Francesco Guardi Francesco Lazzaro Guardi (; 5 October 1712 – 1 January 1793) was an Italian painter, nobleman, and a member of the Venetian School. He is considered to be among the last practitioners, along with his brothers, of the classic Venetian school of ...

Corneille de Lyon Corneille de Lyon (early 16th century – 8 November 1575 (buried)) was a Dutch painter of portraits who was active in Lyon, France, from 1533 until his death. In France and the Netherlands he is also still known as ''Corneille de La Haye'' ( ...

Claude Lorrain Claude Lorrain (; born Claude Gellée , called ''le Lorrain'' in French; traditionally just Claude in English; c. 1600 – 23 November 1682) was a French painter, draughtsman and etcher of the Baroque Painting, Baroque era. He spent most ...

Gustave Courbet Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet ( , , ; 10 June 1819 – 31 December 1877) was a French painter who led the Realism movement in 19th-century French painting. Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and t ...

Jan van Goyen Jan Josephszoon van Goyen (; 13 January 1596 – 27 April 1656) was a Dutch landscape painter. The scope of his landscape subjects was very broad as he painted forest landscapesm marines, river landscapes, beach scenes, winter landscape, cityscap ...

, Aert van der Neer,

Aelbert Cuyp Aelbert Jacobszoon Cuyp () (20 October 1620 – 15 November 1691) was one of the leading Dutch Golden Age painters, producing mainly landscapes. The most famous of a family of painters, the pupil of his father Jacob Gerritszoon Cuyp (1594–165 ...

, Jacob Isaacksz van Ruisdael, and

Thomas Lawrence Sir Thomas Lawrence (13 April 1769 – 7 January 1830) was an English portrait painter and the fourth president of the Royal Academy. A child prodigy, he was born in Bristol and began drawing in Devizes, where his father was an innkeeper at t ...

. After the death of her husband, she continued to expand her collection purchasing works by

Van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inc ...

Rousseau Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revol ...

Paul Gauguin Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (, ; ; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French Post-Impressionist artist. Unappreciated until after his death, Gauguin is now recognized for his experimental use of colour and Synthetist style that were distinct fr ...

Renoir Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "Re ...

Eugène Boudin Eugène Louis Boudin (; 12 July 18248 August 1898) was one of the first French landscape painters to paint outdoors. Boudin was a marine painter, and expert in the rendering of all that goes upon the sea and along its shores. His pastels, summa ...

Odilon Redon Odilon Redon (born Bertrand Redon; ; 20 April 18406 July 1916) was a French symbolist painter, printmaker, draughtsman and pastellist. Early in his career, both before and after fighting in the Franco-Prussian War, he worked almost exclusivel ...

Georges Seurat Georges Pierre Seurat ( , , ; 2 December 1859 – 29 March 1891) was a French post-Impressionist artist. He devised the painting techniques known as chromoluminarism and pointillism and used conté crayon for drawings on paper with a rough su ...

Paul Signac Paul Victor Jules Signac ( , ; 11 November 1863 – 15 August 1935) was a French Neo-Impressionist painter who, working with Georges Seurat, helped develop the Pointillist style. Biography Paul Signac was born in Paris on 11 November 1863. ...

Édouard Vuillard Jean-Édouard Vuillard (; 11 November 186821 June 1940) was a French painter, decorative artist and printmaker. From 1891 through 1900, he was a prominent member of the Nabis, making paintings which assembled areas of pure color, and interior s ...

Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primar ...

, Derain, Whistler,

Childe Hassam Frederick Childe Hassam (; October 17, 1859 – August 27, 1935) was an American Impressionist painter, noted for his urban and coastal scenes. Along with Mary Cassatt and John Henry Twachtman, Hassam was instrumental in promulgating Impressioni ...

, and

Degas Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings. Degas also produced bronze sculptures, prints and drawings. Degas is esp ...

. Upon her death, she left much of her collection to the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 100 ...

and the

Fogg Museum The Harvard Art Museums are part of Harvard University and comprise three museums: the Fogg Museum (established in 1895), the Busch-Reisinger Museum (established in 1903), and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum (established in 1985), and four research ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lehman, Adele Lewisohn 1882 births 1965 deaths Barnard College alumni Jewish American philanthropists Lehman family