Anna M. Harkness

Who was Anna M. Harkness?

Anna Maria Harkness was an American philanthropist.

She married Stephen Vanderburgh Harkness, a businessman of Cleveland, Ohio, in 1851. They were parents of Charles Harkness and Edward Stephen Harkness. Stephen V. Harkness was an early investor with John D. Rockefeller and became the second-largest shareholder in Standard Oil before his death in March 1888.

Anna Harkness lost her daughter Florence on July 29, 1895, shortly after Florence's marriage to Louis Severance in Cleveland, Ohio. Louis Severance was a philanthropist and had been the Treasurer of Standard Oil. Anna M. Harkness and Louis Severance donated the funds for the construction of the Florence Harkness Memorial Chapel at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

After Anna's and Stephen's son Charles W. Harkness died in 1917, Anna Harkness gave $3 million to Yale University for the construction of Memorial Quadrangle in Charles' memory including Harkness Tower, the most visible symbol of Yale on the New Haven skyscape.

In 1918 Anna Harkness established the Commonwealth Fund with an initial gift of $10 million and made her son Edward its president.