Joseph H. Hirshhorn*

Born in Mitau, Latvia, in 1899, Joseph Hirshhorn was the twelfth of thirteen children. His father, a merchant, died when Hirshhorn was an infant. When Hirshhorn was six years old, he immigrated with his mother and siblings to the United States. They settled in Brooklyn, New York, where Hirshhorn's mother worked in a purse factory to support them. A fire gutted their tenement building, sending Hirshhorn's mother to the hospital and scattering the children to live with neighborhood families.

Hirshhorn dropped out of school at age 12 to work in a jewelry store. At age 17, with $255 he had managed to save, he set himself up as a broker on the curb market. By the time he was 28, he was making $2 million a year as a broker's broker. In 1936, he invested in the Preston East Dome Mines, where gold was discovered. He also invested in Canadian uranium mines, and in 1956, he executed an amalgamation with Rio Tinto Company Ltd., of London for $50 million. He also maintained interests in silver, lead, zinc, and copper mines.

However, Hirshhorn's real passion was art. In 1966, he donated his entire collection of some 5,600 works to the United States. The collection is housed in the Joseph H. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.