Julian de Cordova (January 2, 1851 – November 23, 1945) was an American businessman and art collector. He bought the Union Glass Company in 1893, and was its president until its 1924 closure. He donated the land on which the

DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum The deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum is a 30-acre sculpture park and contemporary art museum on the shore of Flint's Pond in Lincoln, Massachusetts, 20 miles northwest of Boston. It was established in 1950. It is the largest park of its kind ...

now stands in Lincoln, Massachusetts.

Career

de Cordova became a successful tea broker, wholesale merchant and investor. He lost his fortune in the financial panic of 1884, but managed to build it back up again. In 1893, he bought the Union Glass Company in Somerville, Massachusetts. He was its president until 1924, when it closed.

Personal life

Julian de Cordova was born in 1851, to Raphael Joshua de Cordova, a Jamaican merchant, and Fanny Blume Nathan, an Englishwoman. They were wed three years earlier. He attended Harvard University between 1880 and 1882. In 1876, de Cordova married Mary Elizabeth Dana, with whom he had one child: Julian Dana de Cordova, who was born on Christmas Day 1877. The family summered in Lincoln, Massachusetts, where in 1910 they remodeled their home of twenty-seven years to resemble a European castle. In 1930, de Cordova donated his home and of land to the Town of Lincoln on the condition that a museum be founded upon his death. Although his collection of paintings was substantial, they were not altogether valuable. Their sale did help fund today's

, however. de Cordova's cousin was Rudolph de Cordova, the Jamaican-born British writer and actor.

Death

de Cordova died at Ring Sanatorium in Arlington, Massachusetts, in 1945, aged 94. He had been ill for some time. He was interred in

Mount Auburn Cemetery Mount Auburn Cemetery is the first rural cemetery, rural, or garden, cemetery in the United States, located on the line between Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge and Watertown, Massachusetts, Watertown in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Middl ...

in Cambridge, Massachusetts, alongside his wife, who preceded him in death by twenty-three years, and son, who died the year after his mother.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:de Cordova, Julian 1851 births 1945 deaths Burials in Massachusetts Businesspeople from New York City People from Lincoln, Massachusetts American Jews Harvard University alumni Businesspeople from Massachusetts