The Newman Library Archives has received a trove of Baruchiana — photos and clippings and other memorabilia of our college’s illustrious namesake, the financier and Presidential advisor Bernard Mannes Baruch — from the recently retired college communications and marketing exec, Diane Harrigan. (Thank you, Diane!) It even came with a calling card suggesting the materials may have originated with the man himself.
We found many goodies in the boxes, which are still being processed for our collections by our skilled archival assistant Katherine Mitchell. But here’s an advance peek, starting with a portrait from 1922:
Let’s begin with some family history — and a wonderful multi-generational photo portrait of the Baruch family in 1917.
Bernard is standing in the top row, over his bearded father, Dr. Simon Baruch. The others are identified on the back of the photo, as follows:
If you’re wondering about the unusual name of Bernard’s youngest brother, Sailing Wolfe Baruch, so are we — his New York Times obit is silent on the issue. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1962/06/15/82127722.html?pageNumber=27 ) But we see that his maternal grandfather was Sailing Wolfe.
Interestingly, father Simon Baruch served as a surgeon on Robert E. Lee’s Confederacy staff during the Civil War, and Bernard later bought a 17,000-acre South Carolina plantation called Hobcaw where President Franklin D. Roosevelt found secret respite during World War II. Here’s a handy history of Bernard and the Baruch family: https://www.knowitall.org/video/bernard-m-baruch-judge-j-bratton-davis-legacy-leadership-interview
Note, too, that Sailing’s son and Bernard’s nephew, young Donald Baruch, standing next to Bernard’s daughter, Belle, was to become the Pentagon’s chief liaison to the motion picture industry, putting the Defense Department’s seal of approval on such classics as “From Here to Eternity”, “The Caine Mutiny”, and “Patton,” as described in an earlier guest blogpost. https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/ipaprocessing/2019/03/a-war-over-war-movies-donald-baruch-and-pentagon-film-censorship/
But let’s get back to Bernard. Here he is in 1947 receiving an award from ill-starred NYC Mayor William O’Dwyer.
Less than three years later, just into his second term at City Hall, O’Dwyer was enmeshed in a corruption scandal and resigned to accept a face-saving appointment as Ambassador to Mexico, the lifeline from President Harry S. Truman never fully explained. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/mayor-william-odwyer-new-york-city-mob-180973078/
Baruch maintained his connections to the pinnacles of power. He was close to former President Herbert Hoover (as was, incidentally, our prime focus for this blog, Luther Halsey Gulick III.)
And to President Lyndon B. Johnson. Here he is with LBJ and running mate Hubert Humphrey, and Texas Governor John Connally in the background, weeks before the Democrats crushed Senator Barry Goldwater in the 1964 election. (Baruch’s White House service spanned six Presidencies, from Woodrow Wilson’s to Truman’s.)
In 1947, Baruch had captivated photographers by hoisting up a youngster for a drink at a Central Park water fountain.
Some 18 years later, the subject –Charles Loewinthan, then 20 — came forward to relish his moment in the sun.
Let’s end with some COMIC relief, also discovered in the Baruchiana boxes. In September 1946, True Comics featured a story on the man they called “Dr. Facts” — Baruch himself. Here’s a reprint with the amusing story in its entirety:
