Heber R Bishop

Early life

Heber Reginald Bishop was born in Massachusetts in 1840 to Nathaniel Holmes Bishop (1789–1850) and Mary Smith Farrar (1806–1881). Bishop's family immigrated from Ipswich, England to the Massachusetts colony in 1685, settling in Medford, Massachusetts.

Bishop received a commercial education, until he moved to Remedios, Cuba at the age of 19 to begin work in the sugar business.

Career

Within two years of moving to Cuba, Bishop had started a sugar refinery business there and began the Bishop & Company, which was sold in 1873 when he returned to the United States, first to his father-in-law's "Cunningham Castle" in Irvington, New York, and later to the Bishop home at 881 Fifth Ave. He then invested in a number of banking firms, iron and steel companies, railroads, and western mining companies.

He was a member of the Chamber of Commerce of New York, a director of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Company, the Chandler Iron Company, the Metropolitan Trust Company of New York, and the Lackawanna Iron and Steel Company.

In 1878, his mansion in Irvington on the Hudson River burned down. The building had a front of about 175 feet and was erected in 1863 by his father-in-law.

Jade Collection

The Bishop Jade Collection donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1902 included not only artistic pieces from China and Japan, but also selections from Mexico, Central America, the northwest coast of America, Swiss lake dwellings, France, Italy, New Zealand and elsewhere. It included a rare crystal of jadeite and a single mass of nephrite from Jordanów Śląski, formerly known as Jordansmühl, Silesia.

"The one thousand numbers included in the Bishop collection display first a mineralogical section in which samples of the minerals are shown from every known place where they may be found. An archaeological section presents specimens of implements, weapons and ornaments in which the material was wrought. The remainder of the collection embraces the art objects upon which the utmost resources of the glyptic art have been lavished. These have been gathered from China, India, Annam, Europe and New Zealand, and comprise every conceivable object of limpid beauty to which the material lends itself. Vases from China, with graceful lines, elegant shape, and patiently carved decoration; perfect boxes of soft sheen with jewelled decoration from India; and the modern work of Europe they all give the highest presentment of sensuous charm and artistry."

Jade Collection Catalog

An enormous catalog, edited by George Frederick Kunz in two volumes, was made of the collection. The catalog was limited to 100 numbered copies, with the first eight going to his children.

Many specialists contributed to the book, including: were as follows: Dr. Stephen Wootton Bushell, Dr. William Hallock, Dr. Samuel Lewis Penfield, Dr. Harry Ward Foote, Dr. Joseph Paxton Iddings, Professor Frank Wigglesworth Clarke, Mr. Ira Harvey Woolson, Mr. Logan Waller Page, Dr. Charles Palache, Luis Valentin Pirsson, Dr. Henry Stephens Washington, Dr. Henry Talbot Walden, Professor L. von Jaczewski, Dr. A. B. Meyer, Dr Joseph Edkins, Dr. Ludwig Leiner, Mrs. Zelia Nuttall, Miss Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore, Dr. Franz Berwerth, Ernst Weinschenk, and Tadamasa Hayashi.

The bound volumes were 19 x 26 inches and weigh, respectively, 70 and 55 pounds. The paper used for the volumes was specially made by the Brown Paper Company, and weighs 176 pounds to the ream. The stock was a combination of pure white cotton rags and linen, and no chemicals were employed. Only a hundred copies were privately printed. "The illustrations were made by various processes; etchings, wood-cuts, and lithographs. The following etchers and engravers took part in the work: Walter M. Aikman (b. 1857); Charles Jean Louis Courtrv (b. 1846); Adolphe Alphonse Gery-Bichard (b. 1841); Paul Le Rat (b. 1840); Auguste Hilaire Leveille (b. 1840); Rodolphe Pignet (b. 1840); and Emile-Jean Sulpis."

Contents of the catalog are: volume 1. General introduction. Jade in China: Introduction. Yü shuo. A discourse on jade. (Translation) Yü shuo. A discourse on jade. (Chinese text) Yü tso t'ou. Illustrations of the modern manufacture of jade. Jade as a mineral. Methods of working jade. Worked jade. Bibliography (p. 257-260)--volume 2. Catalog: Brief introduction, with explanatory statement as to the arrangement. Mineralogical synopsis. Archaeological synopsis. Ancient or tomb pieces from China. Art objects, historical period.

Other collections

Heber Bishop also donated a large collection of Alaskan antiquities to the American Museum of Natural History in 1879. He also collected, with the assistance of Major John Wesley Powell, a large collection of British Columbian ethnological artifacts, including the famous Haida canoe, which is 64 feet long, 8 feet wide and was hollowed out of a single tree trunk by the Heiltsuk tribe, formerly known as the Bella Bella tribe opposite Queen Charlotte Island.

Brayton Ives, a New York financier, made a collection of rare and historical swords. When he ceased collecting, the swords were sold, and through the efforts of Mr. Bishop, William Thompson Walters and the American Art Association, the valuable sword collection, valued at $15,000, was donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art as well.

Personal life

He married Mary Cunningham (1842–1905), the second daughter of Elizabeth Griffiths (1809–1869) and Scottish born James C. Cunningham (1801–1870), who was a mechanical engineer and ship owner of Irvington, New York. Cunningham operated successively in New York, Boston, and, starting in 1850, San Francisco, where he developed Cunningham's Wharf and was involved in the early development the city. Her sister, Jane Templeton Cunningham (1832–1888), was married to Darius Ogden Mills (1825–1910). Their daughter, Elisabeth Mills, married Ambassador Whitelaw Reid, and their son, Ogden Mills (1856-1929), was a prominent financier.

Together, Heber and Mary had eight children:

Bishop died on December 10, 1902 at his residence, 881 Fifth Avenue, after a long illness. Bishop, his wife, and several of their children are interred in the Bishop mausoleum at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Sleepy Hollow, NY. It sits next to the Cunningham mausoleum erected by his wife's father, and a short distance from the Darius Ogden Mills and Whitelaw Reid mausoleums.

His estate, valued at approximately $3,500,000, was left in trust for his widow, children, sisters, and brother. He left funds to the Metropolitan Musem for the preservation of his collection. By 1915, his estate's holdings in Standard Oil had increased in value by $1,450,000.

Society life

Mary's brother-in-law, Darius Ogden Mills, was instrumental in introducing the Bishops to elite New York business and society circles. For example, Heber and his children Mary, Harriet, and Ogden were members of Ward McAllister's "The Four Hundred" list, reportedly the number of people who could fit into Mrs. Astor's ballroom. His daughter Harriet's home, the James F. D. Lanier Residence is a New York landmark. His daughter Edith and her husband owned many residences, including Annandale Farm in Mt. Kisco, NY, Glen Farm in Portsmouth, RI, and the Villa Taylor in Marrakesh, Morocco, where Winston Churchill and Franklin Delano Roosevelt "played hookey" during World War II. The Taylors would cruise to Morocco aboard their 310-foot steam yacht "Iolanda". In 1898, Bishop and his wife gave a red domino dance for 150 at their residence in New York.

An 1895 watercolor on ivory portrait of the four daughters is held by the New York Historical Society. He was a member of the Metropolitan Club, the Union Club, the Union League Club, the New York Yacht Club, the City Club, the Turf and Field Club, the Century Association, the New England Society, the Mendelssohn Glee Club, the Chicago Club of Chicago, the Golf Club of Newport, the Turf Club of Newport, the American Hackney Horse Society of New York and the Civil Service Reform Association.