Anthony J. Drexel (1826–1893) banker

Born in Philadelphia, Drexel’s father was Francis M. Drexel, a prominent city banker from a wellknown Catholic family. Anthony joined the family firm at age 13 as an apprentice and was made a partner in 1847. Although lacking a university education, Drexel was well versed in several languages and became one of the best-known bankers of his generation.

The Drexel firm was upstaged by Jay Cooke & Co. during the Civil War as the major distributor of TREASURY BONDS, and a rivalry developed between the two firms until the collapse of Cooke in 1871. Drexel’s career was somewhat overshadowed by his partnership with John Pierpont Morgan. Drexel & Co. joined in a partnership with Morgan in 1871 at the suggestion of Junius S. Morgan, and Drexel Morgan & Co. opened for business and became the American agent for J. S. Morgan & Co. of London. In addition to doing substantial domestic investment banking business by underwriting securities issues for the U.S. Treasury and many RAILROADS, Drexel Morgan also engaged in international banking. When his older brother Joseph William Drexel died in 1888, Anthony became the sole head of the firm. After the formation of J. P. Morgan & Co. in 1895, Drexel & Co. faded into the background and for all intents and purposes became a subsidiary of the Morgan bank.

Drexel also became the guardian of his niece, Katherine Drexel (1858–1955), the daughter of his brother Francis. She became active in the Catholic Church and founded numerous institutions with her inheritance, among them the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. She was later canonized by the church in 2000.

Drexel was also involved in philanthropic activities, the best known being the founding of the Drexel Institute in Philadelphia in 1892, today known as Drexel University. Originally, he gave the institution $3 million. He died in Bohemia in 1893. After the 1933 separation of commercial and INVESTMENT BANKING by the Glass-Steagall Act, Drexel & Co. continued as an independent partnership until it merged several times, first to become Drexel Harriman, Ripley & Co., then Drexel Firestone, and finally DREXEL BURNHAM LAMBERT in 1973. The firm was finally dissolved after the insider trading scandals of the late 1980s.

See also MORGAN, JOHN PIERPONT; MORGAN, JUNIUS SPENCER.

Further reading

• Carosso, Vincent. Investment Banking in America: A History. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1970. 
• Rottenberg, Dan. The Made Who Made Wall Street: Anthony J. Drexel and the Rise of Modern Finance. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001.