Elizabeth Milbank Anderson Born: 1850
Died: February 22, 1921
Married: Abram A. Anderson
Children: Eleanor Anderson Campbell
Elizabeth Milbank Anderson was a philanthropist, having inherited an estimated $16 million (more than $300 million in today's dollars) from her father, Jeremiah Milbank, in 1884. In 1905 she established one of the first foundations funded by a woman, the Memorial Fund Association (renamed the Milbank Memorial Fund in 1921), with gifts of $9.3 million by the time of her death. She supported a wide range of health and social reform efforts during the Progressive Era, from tuberculosis and diphtheria eradication to relief work for European children following World War I, for which she was made in 1919 a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor by the French government.
Dr. E. L. Trudeau counted her one of his "constant friends" in support of his work. She funded the construction of the Anderson Cottage at the Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium, and the operations of the Saranac Laboratory.
Source: Wikipedia: Elizabeth Milbank Anderson
New York Times, June 30, 1921
HALF OF $7,000,000 ESTATE TO PUBLIC
Mrs. Elizabeth Milbank Anderson Left $1,500,000 to Memorial Fund Association.
$50,000 TO ARTIST HUSBAND
Will Explains That Ample Provision Had Been Made for Him Previously.
The estate of Mrs. Elizabeth Milbank Anderson, who died on Feb. 22 this year, leaving about half her property for public purposes, was appraised yesterday at $7,150,436 gross and $5,761,904 net in addition to a trust fund of $343,830 in securities which she set aside in 1910 for the benefit of herself during her lifetime and then for her granddaughter, Elizabeth M. Anderson 2d.
Mrs. Anderson, who was the wife of Abram A. Anderson, artist, and daughter of the late Jeremiah Milbank, left $100,000 each to the Children's Aid Society and the National Committee for Mental Hygiene, and $200,000 to the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor. She left $50,000 each to the Legal Aid Society, the Henry Street Settlement. New York Hospital and Fisk University, and $40,000 to Barnard College, to which she had made large contributions during her lifetime. To the Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium, Tuskegee Institute, the National Child Labor Committee and State Charities Aid she gave $25,000 each, and legacies of $10,000 and $5,000 to other organizations.
She left $50,000 to her husband, explaining that ample provision had been made for him previously. Friends and members of her household were liberally remembered.
Mrs. Anderson left $1,500,000 to the Memorial Fund Association and $250,000 more goes to the association after the death of her daughter, Eleanor Anderson Campbell. In addition to the trust fund established in 1910, her granddaughter, Elizabeth M. Anderson gets a trust fund of $250,000. Dr. Charles Milbank Cauldwell, a cousin, gets $30,000 and half the residuary estate, $1,138,702, and Albert C. Milbank. another cousin, receives $200,000 and half the residue.
The estate included real estate worth $423,891, consisting of an equity in 124 West Forty-third Street, valued at $269,450, and in 820 Park Avenue, worth $154,447. She had personalty worth $1,368,502, chiefly mortgages, and Jewelry worth $72,434. The most valuable items of jewelry were: Diamond collar, containing 365 small diamonds and 16 large stones weighing 75 karats, left to her daughter, Eleanor; $11,000; Oriental pearl necklace, $24,000: gold, pearl and diamond dog collar, $6,000, and platinum diamond collar, $2,500. Among the valuable paintings were Corot's " Landscape with Figures," $7,500; Sargent's "A Capri Girl," $3,500, and Diaz's "Figures by a Pool in the Woods," $4,500.
The report of Appraiser George Brokaw Compton shows that Mrs. Anderson loaned $125,000 in Liberty bonds to Charles G. West Jr. to buy an interest in the brokerage house of William Morris' Imbrie & Co., but the firm is in bankruptcy, and the bonds are not included in the estate, as there is no present means of determining the value of the claim.
Mrs. Anderson held securities valued at $5,185,883, of which $1,700,200 were in Liberty bonds. Her largest stock interests were Borden Company, 10,000 common. $855,000, and 600 preferred, $45,000; 14,746 Texas & Pacific Coal and Oil Company, $383,408 ; 700 Yale & Towne Manufacturing Company $171,500, and 406 Pacific Mutual life Insurance Company, $223,680. Among the debts were $550,000 to J. P. Morgan & Co., on a note, $255,000, to the Mechanics and Metals National Bank, and $90,000 to the Bankers Trust Company.
