HIRSHHORN, JOSEPH HERMAN

HIRSHHORN, JOSEPH HERMAN (1899–1981), U.S. financier, mining executive, and art collector. Hirshhorn, who was born in Mitau (Jelgava), Latvia, went to the U.S. in 1905 with his widowed mother and her 12 other children. He began working at the age of 15 as an office boy. At the age of 17 he became a stockbroker and accumulated substantial wealth during the 1920s. Having avoided heavy losses during the 1929 crash, he turned his attention to Canada where he first successfully engaged in gold mining. At the end of the 1940s, Hirshhorn began to finance uranium ventures which led to the significant discoveries in the Blind River region (Ontario). In 1954 he consolidated his numerous Canadian mining properties into a large interest in Canadian Rio Tinto. This reorganization enabled him to concentrate on his collection of contemporary art. In May 1966 President Johnson, on behalf of the United States, accepted Hirshhorn's collection of 4,000 paintings and 1,500 sculptures. In October 1966 Congress voted $15 million for the construction of a gallery and a sculpture garden to house them. The collection is one of the most comprehensive and representative assemblies of modern visual art. The Joseph H. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden was formally inaugurated in Washington on October 1, 1974. Consisting of 6,000 paintings and sculptures, it gives Washington the status of a major modern art center. The sculpture collection is regarded as one of the greatest in the world, with examples of virtually every notable sculptor of the 19th and 20th centuries. (Joachim O. Ronall (2nd ed.)