Abraham Lincoln Filene (April 5, 1865 – August 27, 1957) was an American businessman and

philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing on material ...

Biography

Born to a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

family in

Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, he was one of 5 children of William Filene and Clara Ballin. His parents were

German Jewish The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321 CE, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (c. 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish commu ...

immigrants - his father from Posen,

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

and mother was born in Segnitz,

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

- who immigrated to the United States in 1848. His father founded

Filene's Filene's was an American department store chain founded in 1881 by William Filene. The historic Filene's Department Store in the Downtown Crossing district of Boston, Massachusetts housed the flagship store and headquarters, while branch store ...

department stores. Known by his middle name, Lincoln, together with his older brother

Edward Edward is an English male name. It is derived from the Anglo-Saxon name ''Ēadweard'', composed of the elements '' ēad'' "wealth, fortunate; prosperous" and '' weard'' "guardian, protector”. History The name Edward was very popular in Anglo-S ...

, built his father's store into a highly successful business. A

social reform Reformism is a type of social movement that aims to bring a social or also a political system closer to the community's ideal. A reform movement is distinguished from more radical social movements such as revolutionary movements which reject t ...

er, Lincoln Filene supported the American women's suffrage movement and went against the position taken by most members of the American business community when he publicly supported President

Franklin Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

New Deal The New Deal was a series of wide-reaching economic, social, and political reforms enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1938, in response to the Great Depression in the United States, Great Depressi ...

agenda. Filene had a keen interest in educational issues and served as a member of the Executive Board of the National Committee for the

Department of Education An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...

. A philanthropist, in 1937 he and his wife established the Lincoln and Therese Filene Foundation. They supported numerous educational endeavours including the "Lincoln Filene Center for Citizenship and Public Affairs" at

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university in Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts, United States, with additional facilities in Boston and Grafton, as well as Talloires, France. Tufts also has several Doctor of Physical Therapy p ...

and in 1955 funded the first

educational television Educational television or learning television is the use of television programs in the field of distance education. It may be in the form of individual television programs or dedicated specialty channels that are often associated with cable televi ...

station in the city of Boston.

Personal life

Lincoln Filene married Thérèse Weill. A family involved in the arts, they were part of the group who founded the

Boston Symphony Orchestra The Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is an American orchestra based in Boston. It is the second-oldest of the five major American symphony orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five (orchestras), Big Five". Founded by Henry Lee Higginson in ...

. They had two daughters, Helen Filene Ladd and

Catherine Filene Shouse Catherine Filene Shouse (June 9, 1896 – December 14, 1994) was an American researcher and philanthropist. She graduated in 1918 from Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts. She worked for the Women's Division of the U.S. Employment Service ...

. Catherine received numerous domestic and international honors for her contribution to the arts and who donated the land and provided funding for Virginia's

Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts (originally known as the Wolf Trap Farm Park for the Performing Arts and simply known as Wolf Trap) is a performing arts center located on of national park land in unincorporated Fairfax County, ...

. Lincoln Filene died in 1957 in Marstons Mills, Massachusetts.

References

External links

A. Lincoln Filene Collection at Harvard Business School
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Filene, A. Lincoln 1865 births 1957 deaths American people of German-Jewish descent 20th-century American philanthropists American businesspeople in retailing Philanthropists from Massachusetts Businesspeople from Boston People from Marstons Mills, Massachusetts Suffragists from Massachusetts Filene family 19th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American businesspeople