The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Speyer, James

SPEYER, James, American banker: b. New York, 22 July 1861. He was educated at Frankfort, Germany, and entered his family's banking-house in that city in 1883. He was

subsequently connected with the Paris and London branches of the firm before returning to New York. He became the head of the family firm of bankers and was an officer in many other banks and trust companies. He was one of the founders of the Provident Loan Company and a trustee of Teachers' College, Columbia University, to which he in 1902 presented the Speyer School. He was actively connected with the defeat of the Tammany Hall organization in 1894.