Frederick Baldwin Adams, Jr.

Who was Frederick Baldwin Adams, Jr.?

Frederick Baldwin Adams, Jr. was an American bibliophile and the director of the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York City from 1938–1969.

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Ellen Walters Delano and Frederick Baldwin Adams, he married as his second wife on July 23, 1969, the Swedish princess Marie-Luise Natalie Engelberta Ludmilla Nancy Julie, Prinzessin von Croÿ, daughter of Nancy Louise Leishman and Karl Rudolf Engelbert Phillipp Leo, Herzog von Croÿ.

He was Director Emeritus of the Pierpoint Morgan Library, 1948–69; President, 1959–71, Governing Board 1952–, Yale University Press; Member, Yale Corporation, 1964–71; Yale University Council, 1949–58 and President of the New-York Historical Society. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1954. He was president of the Grolier Club, 1947-1951.

Adams graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the Yale University in 1933, where he was a member of Skull and Bones He amassed one of the largest personal holdings of works by authors Thomas Hardy and Robert Frost, as well as one of the leading collections of Karl Marx and left-wing Americana. Adams resigned from the Morgan Library and moved to Paris with his wife after their marriage. There he served at president of the Association Internationale de Bibliophile, the most prestigious organization of bibliophiles in the world. His own collection was dispersed at Sotheby’s in London, November 6 – 7, 2001.