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Charles Richard Crane

October 21, 2023

Charles Richard Crane (August 7, 1858 – February 15, 1939)[1] was a wealthy American businessman, heir to a large industrial fortune and connoisseur of Arab culture, a noted Arabist. His widespread business interests gave him entree into domestic and international political affairs where he enjoyed privileged access to many influential power brokers at the top levels of government. His special arena of interest was Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

Charles Richard Crane in 1909

Biography and diplomatic activity Edit

Crane was the eldest son of plumbing parts mogul, Chicago manufacturer, Richard T. Crane. As a young man, Crane traveled extensively with his friend Charles B. Cory, a leading ornithologist whom Crane had met while visiting Boston. Crane and Cory shared an interest in baseball, and from 1888 to 1892, the pair funded and played on the Hyannis town team in what is now the Cape Cod Baseball League. At Cory and Crane's expense, various well-known professional and amateur players were brought in to play alongside the Hyannis locals. When Cory lost his family's fortune in 1906, Crane purchased Cory's vast collection of bird specimens and donated it to Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History with the stipulation that the museum would employ Cory as permanent curator of the collection.[2][3][4][5]

In the 1900s, he brought Thomas Masaryk, Maksim Kovalevsky and Pavel Milyukov to lecture at the University of Chicago. After meeting Masaryk, he became interested in Slavic nationalism and sponsored The Slav Epic paintings by Alphonse Mucha[6] When Mucha designed the Czechoslovak bills, he used a previous portrait of Josephine Crane Bradley as Slavia for the 100 koruna bill.[6]

President William Howard Taft appointed Crane minister to China on July 16, 1909,[7] but on the eve of his departure to his post on October 4, 1909, he was recalled to Washington and forced to resign under pressure by US Secretary of State Philander C. Knox,[8] who held him responsible for the publication in a Chicago newspaper of the US government's objections to two recent treaties between Japan and China.[9][10]

 
Charles R. Crane (left) and James Farley stand behind Franklin D. Roosevelt in Warm Springs, Georgia, December 7, 1931.

Crane contributed heavily to Woodrow Wilson's 1912 election campaign. Wilson rewarded Crane with appointments to the 1917 Special Diplomatic Commission to Russia, known as the Root Commission, as a member of the American Section of the Paris Peace Conference, and to the 1919 Inter-Allied Commission on Mandates in Turkey that became known as the King-Crane Commission. While the commission was originally proposed by the US to develop an international consensus on the future make up and status of postwar Middle East nations, the commission quickly became a US-only sponsored effort. With the appointment of Crane as co-head of the commission, it set about to issue a report to inform US policy makers.[11] In respect to the creation of a Jewish state in the Middle East, the report cautioned "Not only you as president but the American people as a whole should realize that if the American government decided to support the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine, they are committing the American people to the use of force in that area, since only by force can a Jewish state in Palestine be established or maintained." Crane opposed the establishment of a Jewish state in the Middle East.[12] He was a passionate spokesman for the independence of the Arab states.[13]

From May and June 1918 he helped Thomas Garrigue Masaryk to meet with president Wilson for the negotiation may be support Czechoslovak legions special in Russia and founding of a new independent Czechoslovak state [14]

Crane was appointed United States Ambassador to China by President Wilson and served from March 22, 1920, to July 2, 1921.

 
Crane's handwriting (1932)

In 1925 Crane founded the New York-based Institute of Current World Affairs. The institute employed field representatives in Mexico, Jerusalem, and occasionally Moscow. These representatives compiled regular reports on developments in their regions, and shared their expertise during ICWA-sponsored lecture tours of major US universities. The reports were also made available to the US State Department.

In 1931, Crane helped finance the first explorations for oil in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. He was instrumental in gaining the American oil concession there.[15][16]

He was also a member of the famous Jekyll Island Club (aka The Millionaires Club) on Jekyll Island, Georgia.

His son, Richard Teller Crane II, was a diplomat.

Harvard/Danilov Bells Edit

In the wake of the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, Crane was instrumental in rescuing from destruction some of the most important Russian bells, from the Danilov monastery. When the Communists closed the monastery in 1929, the Danilov bell set was saved from Communist melting by Crane's purchase of the bells. The largest of the bells, Bolshoi (or The Big One - called The Mother Earth Bell at Harvard), weighs 13 tons and has a 700-pound clapper. The smallest weighs just 22 pounds. Crane donated the bells to Harvard University and they were installed in the main tower of Harvard's Lowell House and at Harvard Business School's Baker Library, where they safely remained for over 70 years. Beginning in the 1980s, with openness under Gorbachev, there were calls to return the bells, and after numerous meetings over the years, the bells were returned to the Russian Orthodox Church and the Danilov monastery in 2008.[17]

Allegations of Anti-Semitism Edit

When Franklin Roosevelt appointed William E. Dodd American ambassador to Germany in 1933, Crane wrote Dodd a letter of congratulation that told him:[18]

The Jews, after winning the war, galloping along at a swift pace, getting Russia, England and Palestine, being caught in the act of trying to seize Germany, too, and meeting their first real rebuff, have gone plumb crazy and are deluging the world—particularly easy America—with anti-German propaganda. I strongly advise you to resist every social invitation.

According to Larson, at a dinner, Ambassador Dodd heard Crane express admiration for Hitler and learned that Crane also had no objection to how the Nazis were treating Germany's Jews, telling Dodd: "Let Hitler have his way."[18]

In his biography of Crane, Norman E. Saul notes that he maintained relationships with prominent Jews such as Louis Brandeis and Lillian Wald and suggests that his “vague but open” anti-Semitism was not uncommon among Anglo-Saxons of his time. Saul notes that his admiration of Hitler left, in retrospect, the most damaging legacy to his reputation.[19]

Death and Legacy Edit

On February 15, 1939, Crane died of influenza in his Winter home in Palm Springs, California.[20]

Legacy Edit

On April 24, 2006, Crane's art collection was sold at Christie's auction house.[21]

Footnotes Edit

  1. ^ Charles R. Crane, Friend of Russia, The Russian Review
  2. ^ Saul, Norman E. (2013). The Life and Times of Charles R. Crane. Plymouth, UK: Lexington Books. p. 19,20,27. ISBN 978-0-7391-7746-4.
  3. ^ "Hyannis". Yarmouth Register. Yarmouth, MA. July 7, 1888. p. 1.
  4. ^ "Base Ball at Hyannis". Barnstable Patriot. Barnstable, MA. July 21, 1891. p. 2.
  5. ^ Cory, Charles B. (September 29, 1891). "How Mullens Won the Game". Barnstable Patriot. Barnstable, MA. p. 2.
  6. ^ a b An Introduction to the Work of Alphonse Mucha and Art Nouveau, lecture by Ian Johnston of Malaspina University-College, Nanaimo, British Columbia (March 2004).
  7. ^ New York Times: "Crane Takes Post as Envy to China," July 17, 1909, accessed February 3, 2012
  8. ^ New York Times: "Call Back Minister Crane," October 5, 1909, accessed February 3, 2012
  9. ^ New York Times: "State Secrets Out; Crane Questioned," October 11, 1909, accessed February 3, 2012
  10. ^ David Philipson, My Life as an American Jew: An Autobiography (1941), 32-33, wrote that President Taft told him in November 1909 that he asked for Crane's resignation after hearing Crane responded to his election by saying: "Well, now that Taft is President, I suppose that Jake Schiff and his Jew crowd will have a great deal to say in our national affairs."
  11. ^ "The King-Crane Commission Report, August 28, 1919". Hellenic Resources Network. Retrieved 2010-08-03.
  12. ^ F.W. Brecher, "Charles R. Crane's Crusade for the Arabs, 1919-39," Middle Eastern Studies, XXIV, January 1988; pp 46-47. Elliott A Green, "The Curious Careers of Two Advocates of Arab Nationalism," Crossroads no. 33 [1992]
  13. ^ Beecher, Frank W. Reluctant Ally: United States Foreign Policy toward the Jews from Wilson to Roosevelt (NY: Green-wood Press, 1991), pp. ??
  14. ^ PRECLÍK, Vratislav. Masaryk a legie (Masaryk and legions), váz. kniha, 219 str., vydalo nakladatelství Paris Karviná, Žižkova 2379 (734 01 Karviná) ve spolupráci s Masarykovým demokratickým hnutím (Masaryk Democratic Movement, Prague), 2019, ISBN 978-80-87173-47-3, pp. 20 - 96, 124 - 128, 140 - 148, 184 - 190
  15. ^ Harry St. J. B. Philby, "Sa'udi Arabia" (NY: F.A. Praeger, 1955), Chapter 11 {page?}
  16. ^ Yergin, Daniel (1991). The Prize, The epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power. New York: Touchstone. p. 288. ISBN 9780671799328.
  17. ^ Batuman, Elif (20 April 2009). "The Bells". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2020-12-10.
  18. ^ a b Larson, Erik, In The Garden of Beasts (Crown Publishers, 2011), 38-9
  19. ^ The Life and Times of Charles R. Crane, 1858–1939: American Businessman, Philanthropist, and a Founder of Russian Studies in America |Norman E. Saul|Lexington Books|2012|ISBN 9780739177464 p=270
  20. ^ TIMES, Special to THE NEW YORK (1939-02-16). "CHARLES R. CRANE, EX-ENVOY, 80, DIES; Named Minister to China by Taft, but Recalled, He Was Sent There by Wilson ALSO ON RUSSIAN MISSION Retired Head of Chicago Firm Making Bathroom Fixtures Gave Much to Charity". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-10-15.
  21. ^ "Property from the Collection of Ambassador Charles R. Crane". Christie's. April 24, 2006. Retrieved October 16, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)

Further reading Edit

  • Norman E. Saul, The Life and Times of Charles R. Crane, 1858-1939: American Businessman, Philanthropist, and a Founder of Russian Studies in America. Lanham, MD: Lexington, 2013.
  • Sulzbach, Jacob John, Jr. "Charles R. Crane, Woodrow Wilson, and Progressive reform: 1909-1921" (PhD dissertation, Texas A&M University; ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 1994. 9520473).

External links Edit

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Charles Richard Crane.
  • Institute of World Affairs Crane-Rogers Foundation
  • King-Crane Commission Report
  • Crane Family Papers 1875-1980

October 21, 2023
charles, richard, crane, august, 1858, february, 1939, wealthy, american, businessman, heir, large, industrial, fortune, connoisseur, arab, culture, noted, arabist, widespread, business, interests, gave, entree, into, domestic, international, political, affair. Charles Richard Crane August 7 1858 February 15 1939 1 was a wealthy American businessman heir to a large industrial fortune and connoisseur of Arab culture a noted Arabist His widespread business interests gave him entree into domestic and international political affairs where he enjoyed privileged access to many influential power brokers at the top levels of government His special arena of interest was Eastern Europe and the Middle East Charles Richard Crane in 1909 Contents 1 Biography and diplomatic activity 1 1 Harvard Danilov Bells 1 2 Allegations of Anti Semitism 2 Death and Legacy 2 1 Legacy 3 Footnotes 4 Further reading 5 External linksBiography and diplomatic activity EditCrane was the eldest son of plumbing parts mogul Chicago manufacturer Richard T Crane As a young man Crane traveled extensively with his friend Charles B Cory a leading ornithologist whom Crane had met while visiting Boston Crane and Cory shared an interest in baseball and from 1888 to 1892 the pair funded and played on the Hyannis town team in what is now the Cape Cod Baseball League At Cory and Crane s expense various well known professional and amateur players were brought in to play alongside the Hyannis locals When Cory lost his family s fortune in 1906 Crane purchased Cory s vast collection of bird specimens and donated it to Chicago s Field Museum of Natural History with the stipulation that the museum would employ Cory as permanent curator of the collection 2 3 4 5 In the 1900s he brought Thomas Masaryk Maksim Kovalevsky and Pavel Milyukov to lecture at the University of Chicago After meeting Masaryk he became interested in Slavic nationalism and sponsored The Slav Epic paintings by Alphonse Mucha 6 When Mucha designed the Czechoslovak bills he used a previous portrait of Josephine Crane Bradley as Slavia for the 100 koruna bill 6 President William Howard Taft appointed Crane minister to China on July 16 1909 7 but on the eve of his departure to his post on October 4 1909 he was recalled to Washington and forced to resign under pressure by US Secretary of State Philander C Knox 8 who held him responsible for the publication in a Chicago newspaper of the US government s objections to two recent treaties between Japan and China 9 10 nbsp Charles R Crane left and James Farley stand behind Franklin D Roosevelt in Warm Springs Georgia December 7 1931 Crane contributed heavily to Woodrow Wilson s 1912 election campaign Wilson rewarded Crane with appointments to the 1917 Special Diplomatic Commission to Russia known as the Root Commission as a member of the American Section of the Paris Peace Conference and to the 1919 Inter Allied Commission on Mandates in Turkey that became known as the King Crane Commission While the commission was originally proposed by the US to develop an international consensus on the future make up and status of postwar Middle East nations the commission quickly became a US only sponsored effort With the appointment of Crane as co head of the commission it set about to issue a report to inform US policy makers 11 In respect to the creation of a Jewish state in the Middle East the report cautioned Not only you as president but the American people as a whole should realize that if the American government decided to support the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine they are committing the American people to the use of force in that area since only by force can a Jewish state in Palestine be established or maintained Crane opposed the establishment of a Jewish state in the Middle East 12 He was a passionate spokesman for the independence of the Arab states 13 From May and June 1918 he helped Thomas Garrigue Masaryk to meet with president Wilson for the negotiation may be support Czechoslovak legions special in Russia and founding of a new independent Czechoslovak state 14 Crane was appointed United States Ambassador to China by President Wilson and served from March 22 1920 to July 2 1921 nbsp Crane s handwriting 1932 In 1925 Crane founded the New York based Institute of Current World Affairs The institute employed field representatives in Mexico Jerusalem and occasionally Moscow These representatives compiled regular reports on developments in their regions and shared their expertise during ICWA sponsored lecture tours of major US universities The reports were also made available to the US State Department In 1931 Crane helped finance the first explorations for oil in Saudi Arabia and Yemen He was instrumental in gaining the American oil concession there 15 16 He was also a member of the famous Jekyll Island Club aka The Millionaires Club on Jekyll Island Georgia His son Richard Teller Crane II was a diplomat Harvard Danilov Bells Edit In the wake of the Bolshevik revolution in Russia Crane was instrumental in rescuing from destruction some of the most important Russian bells from the Danilov monastery When the Communists closed the monastery in 1929 the Danilov bell set was saved from Communist melting by Crane s purchase of the bells The largest of the bells Bolshoi or The Big One called The Mother Earth Bell at Harvard weighs 13 tons and has a 700 pound clapper The smallest weighs just 22 pounds Crane donated the bells to Harvard University and they were installed in the main tower of Harvard s Lowell House and at Harvard Business School s Baker Library where they safely remained for over 70 years Beginning in the 1980s with openness under Gorbachev there were calls to return the bells and after numerous meetings over the years the bells were returned to the Russian Orthodox Church and the Danilov monastery in 2008 17 Allegations of Anti Semitism Edit When Franklin Roosevelt appointed William E Dodd American ambassador to Germany in 1933 Crane wrote Dodd a letter of congratulation that told him 18 The Jews after winning the war galloping along at a swift pace getting Russia England and Palestine being caught in the act of trying to seize Germany too and meeting their first real rebuff have gone plumb crazy and are deluging the world particularly easy America with anti German propaganda I strongly advise you to resist every social invitation According to Larson at a dinner Ambassador Dodd heard Crane express admiration for Hitler and learned that Crane also had no objection to how the Nazis were treating Germany s Jews telling Dodd Let Hitler have his way 18 In his biography of Crane Norman E Saul notes that he maintained relationships with prominent Jews such as Louis Brandeis and Lillian Wald and suggests that his vague but open anti Semitism was not uncommon among Anglo Saxons of his time Saul notes that his admiration of Hitler left in retrospect the most damaging legacy to his reputation 19 Death and Legacy EditOn February 15 1939 Crane died of influenza in his Winter home in Palm Springs California 20 Legacy Edit On April 24 2006 Crane s art collection was sold at Christie s auction house 21 Footnotes Edit Charles R Crane Friend of Russia The Russian Review Saul Norman E 2013 The Life and Times of Charles R Crane Plymouth UK Lexington Books p 19 20 27 ISBN 978 0 7391 7746 4 Hyannis Yarmouth Register Yarmouth MA July 7 1888 p 1 Base Ball at Hyannis Barnstable Patriot Barnstable MA July 21 1891 p 2 Cory Charles B September 29 1891 How Mullens Won the Game Barnstable Patriot Barnstable MA p 2 a b An Introduction to the Work of Alphonse Mucha and Art Nouveau lecture by Ian Johnston of Malaspina University College Nanaimo British Columbia March 2004 New York Times Crane Takes Post as Envy to China July 17 1909 accessed February 3 2012 New York Times Call Back Minister Crane October 5 1909 accessed February 3 2012 New York Times State Secrets Out Crane Questioned October 11 1909 accessed February 3 2012 David Philipson My Life as an American Jew An Autobiography 1941 32 33 wrote that President Taft told him in November 1909 that he asked for Crane s resignation after hearing Crane responded to his election by saying Well now that Taft is President I suppose that Jake Schiff and his Jew crowd will have a great deal to say in our national affairs The King Crane Commission Report August 28 1919 Hellenic Resources Network Retrieved 2010 08 03 F W Brecher Charles R Crane s Crusade for the Arabs 1919 39 Middle Eastern Studies XXIV January 1988 pp 46 47 Elliott A Green The Curious Careers of Two Advocates of Arab Nationalism Crossroads no 33 1992 Beecher Frank W Reluctant Ally United States Foreign Policy toward the Jews from Wilson to Roosevelt NY Green wood Press 1991 pp PRECLIK Vratislav Masaryk a legie Masaryk and legions vaz kniha 219 str vydalo nakladatelstvi Paris Karvina Zizkova 2379 734 01 Karvina ve spolupraci s Masarykovym demokratickym hnutim Masaryk Democratic Movement Prague 2019 ISBN 978 80 87173 47 3 pp 20 96 124 128 140 148 184 190 Harry St J B Philby Sa udi Arabia NY F A Praeger 1955 Chapter 11 page Yergin Daniel 1991 The Prize The epic Quest for Oil Money amp Power New York Touchstone p 288 ISBN 9780671799328 Batuman Elif 20 April 2009 The Bells The New Yorker Retrieved 2020 12 10 a b Larson Erik In The Garden of Beasts Crown Publishers 2011 38 9 The Life and Times of Charles R Crane 1858 1939 American Businessman Philanthropist and a Founder of Russian Studies in America Norman E Saul Lexington Books 2012 ISBN 9780739177464 p 270 TIMES Special to THE NEW YORK 1939 02 16 CHARLES R CRANE EX ENVOY 80 DIES Named Minister to China by Taft but Recalled He Was Sent There by Wilson ALSO ON RUSSIAN MISSION Retired Head of Chicago Firm Making Bathroom Fixtures Gave Much to Charity The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Retrieved 2023 10 15 Property from the Collection of Ambassador Charles R Crane Christie s April 24 2006 Retrieved October 16 2023 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint url status link Further reading EditNorman E Saul The Life and Times of Charles R Crane 1858 1939 American Businessman Philanthropist and a Founder of Russian Studies in America Lanham MD Lexington 2013 Sulzbach Jacob John Jr Charles R Crane Woodrow Wilson and Progressive reform 1909 1921 PhD dissertation Texas A amp M University ProQuest Dissertations Publishing 1994 9520473 External links Edit nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Charles Richard Crane Institute of World Affairs Crane Rogers Foundation King Crane Commission Report Crane Family Papers 1875 1980 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Charles Richard Crane amp oldid 1180318362, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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