David Thomas Abercrombie (June 6, 1867 – August 29, 1931) was the founder of the American

lifestyle brand A lifestyle brand is a brand that attempts to embody the values, aspirations, interests, attitudes, or opinions of a group or a culture for marketing purposes.page 16 Lifestyle brands seek to inspire, guide, and motivate people, with the goal of ...

Abercrombie & Fitch Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F) is an American lifestyle retailer that focuses on casual wear. Its headquarters are in New Albany, Ohio. The company operates three other offshoot brands: Abercrombie Kids, Hollister Co., and Gilly Hicks. As of Februar ...

. A

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and expert in the outdoors, Abercrombie opened the company as

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's outfitter for the elite and later partnered up with co-founder

Ezra Fitch Ezra Hasbrouck Fitch (September 27, 1865 – June 16, 1930) was the co-founder of the modern lifestyle brand Abercrombie & Fitch and is attributed with the introduction of Mahjong to the United States. A wealthy New York City manager, Fitch beg ...

– both men managed the Company through great years of success. After leaving the company, Abercrombie lived the remainder of his life in

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with his family until his death. Today, his company,

Co. remains as a prominent American clothing brand. A brand in his name was released by the company in 1998 –

abercrombie Abercrombie may refer to: People * Abercrombie Lawson (1870–1927), botanist and professor * Abercrombie (surname) (list of people with the family name Abercrombie) Places Americas * Abercrombie, North Dakota, United States, city in Richland ...

Life and career

Birth, studies, and family

David T. Abercrombie was born in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

on June 6, 1867 as the son of John and Elizabeth Sarah Abercrombie (née Daniel). He was of

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

descent as his father John was born in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

and his maternal grandfather was also from Scotland. His children: Elizabeth, born 1897; Lucy, born 1899; David, born 1901 ; Abbott, born 1909. He was educated in the public schools of Baltimore and by private instructors. Abercrombie later came to study at

Baltimore City College Baltimore City College, known colloquially as City, City College, and B.C.C., is a college preparatory school with a liberal arts focus and selective admissions criteria located in Baltimore, Maryland. Opened in October 1839, B.C.C. is the thir ...

and became a practicing civil engineer and topographer, including explorer and chief of survey for

Norfolk & Western Railroad The Norfolk and Western Railway , commonly called the N&W, was a US class I railroad, formed by more than 200 railroad mergers between 1838 and 1982. It was headquartered in Roanoke, Virginia, for most of its existence. Its motto was "Precisio ...

in the coal and timber lands of

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...

Abercrombie & Fitch Co.

On June 4, 1892, he founded Abercrombie Co. as a small waterfront shop at No.36 South Street in downtown

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; where wealthy

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was one of his regular customers. On April 25, 1896, Abercrombie married Lucy Abbot Cate in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

. The couple gave birth to four children: Elizabeth, Lucy, David, and Abbott. The Abercrombie family resided in

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, New Jersey. Later they resided in

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and finally in

Ossining, New York Ossining may refer to: * Ossining (town), New York, a town in Westchester County, New York state *Ossining (village), New York, a village in the town of Ossining * Ossining High School, a comprehensive public high school in Ossining village * Ossi ...

. In 1900, Fitch bought a share into the successfully growing Abercrombie Company. In 1904, it was incorporated and renamed "Abercrombie & Fitch Co." Abercrombie later entered into disputes with Ezra Fitch over Fitch's visions of expanding the company to appeal to the general public, as Abercrombie sought to maintain the company's standing as an elite store for the elite outdoorsman. Possibly as a result of this rift, Abercrombie left the Company in 1907, selling his share of it to Fitch.

Post A&F and death

In 1917, Abercrombie joined Baker, Murray & Imbrie ("The Sporting Goods Store of Expert Personal Service") as vice president. He later founded the "David T. Abercrombie Company", a

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

sportsmen's outfitter, and "Abercrombie Corporation", which packed commodities for export. In 1927 he finished work on a large granite castle in Ossining overlooking the

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with a 300-acre estate, which he named Elda after the initials of his children's names. It has since fallen into disrepair. There he died,

intestate Intestacy is the condition of the estate of a person who dies without having in force a valid will or other binding declaration. Alternatively this may also apply where a will or declaration has been made, but only applies to part of the estat ...

, in 1931. Abercrombie & Fitch Fifth Avenue crop

Legacy

David Abercrombie's influence in his company has remained as a greater part of it, even after Abercrombie's departure and the company's 1960s-1970s financial issues. Repositioned in the 1980s as a

for the collegiate,

remains today as a cultural

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brand. Although altered to accommodate its promoted image of "Casual Luxury",

continues to reference to its original image of its early years with the Abercrombie

moose The moose (in North America) or elk (in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is a member of the New World deer subfamily and is the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is the largest and heaviest extant species in the deer family. Most adult mal ...

and "sexy" male ruggedness. Abercrombie's name is often used as an abbreviated form of the company's name and is used frequently more than

's "Fitch" (e.g. "Abercrombie

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...

2007", "abercrombie.com", "the Abercrombie lifestyle...", etc.). When the Company released a children's version of the A&F brand,

, it chose to name it after Abercrombie. Unlike Ezra Fitch, Abercrombie's name has never been used for clothing lines and other products for the A&F brand (Fitch's lines have been removed).

References

Bibliography * * "D.T. Abercrombie, Sportsman, is Dead; Originator of Noted Firm Dealing in Sporting Goods--Was Explorer, Hunter, Fisherman." ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' (August 30, 1931), p. N6 * "Abercrombie Left Estate of $10,793; Founder of Sporting Goods Firm Bequeathed Property to Widow and Three Children", ''The New York Times'' (March 12, 1932) p. 6 Notes

External links

Photo of David Abercrombie's Ossining castle
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abercrombie, David 1867 births 1931 deaths Abercrombie & Fitch American people of Scottish descent Retail company founders Baltimore City College alumni Businesspeople from Baltimore People from Ossining, New York