Henry I. Harriman Explained

Henry I. Harriman
Birth Date:	1873
Birth Place:	Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Death Date:	July 5, 1950 (age 77)
Death Place:	Newton, Massachusetts, U.S.
Occupation:	Corporate executive President, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Children:	Gordon Douglas Harriman; Eunice Alberta (Harriman) Millikin

Henry Ingraham Harriman (1873 – July 5, 1950) was an American public utility executive and President of the United States Chamber of Commerce from 1932 to 1935.

Early life and career

Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1873, he graduated from Wesleyan University in 1895, received his bachelor of laws in 1897 from New York Law School, and his Ph.D. from Wesleyan University in 1930.^[1]

He initially worked in the textile industry in Massachusetts, where he received patents for several automatic looms. In time, he became head of the Stafford Company, which manufactured his looms. He left the textile industry and engaged in the buying and selling of water rights in the Deep South before returning to the New England to build hydroelectric dams and form the New England Power Company^[2] and the Connecticut River Power Company. Harriman Dam on the Deerfield River, built in 1924, was named for him. He served as president of the New England Power Company and (until 1927) its parent, the New England Power Association,^[3] and on the board of directors of several regional New England power companies.

He was chairman of the board of trustees of the Boston Elevated Railway, Boston Chamber of Commerce (from 1917 to 1919),^[4] Division of Metropolitan Planning for Greater Boston,^[5] and the Massachusetts State Planning Board.^[6] In 1918, he was appointed a regional director of the War Industries Board.^[7]

Chamber of Commerce and later life

He was president and director of the United States Chamber of Commerce from 1933 to 1935.^[8] Active in political causes, in 1937 he was appointed a delegate to the International Labour Conference (serving for many years) and the American Youth Congress.^[9]

He had two children, Gordon Douglas Harriman and Eunice Alberta (Harriman) Millikin.

Toward the end of his life, he lived in Newton, Massachusetts. He died on July 5, 1950, after a long illness at his daughter's home in Needham, Massachusetts. His home in Newton, the Henry I. Harriman House, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.

Notes and References

1. "Henry I. Harriman, Utility Executive." New York Times. July 6, 1950.
2. "Power Conference Faces $1,569 Debt." New York Times. February 8, 1922.
3. Bullard, F. Lauriston. "Finds New England Safe For Industry." New York Times. July 22, 1928.
4. "Harriman Heads Boston Chamber." Boston Globe. May 18, 1917; "Macomber Chamber of Commerce Head." Boston Globe. June 29, 1919.
5. "Plan for Aerial Highway For Boston Is Set Forth." New York Times. December 18, 1927; Norman, Robert T. "The Harvard Plan for Metropolitan Boston." Western Political Quarterly. 16:3 (September 1963).
6. Bullard, F. Lauriston. "Bay State Seeks Transit Solution." New York Times. March 3, 1929.
7. "20 Industrial Directors." New York Times June 5, 1918.
8. Schlesinger, Jr., Arthur M. The Age of Roosevelt: The Politics of Upheaval, 1935–1936. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2003. (Originally published in 1960.) ; Barber, William J. From New Era to New Deal: Herbert Hoover, the Economists, and American Economic Policy, 1921–1933. Reprint ed. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989. ; "New Deal Attacks Held Recovery Sign." New York Times. May 10, 1935.
9. "M'Grady In Geneva For Labor Parley." New York Times. June 3, 1937; Barnard, Eunice. "In The Classroom and On The Campus." New York Times. May 16, 1937; "President Names Delegates to ILO." New York Times. April 16, 1944.