The ultimate picture that a photographer
can take is often that of an impossible dream, the best of the best, the golden money shot. This photograph of J.P. Morgan taken by Eddie Jackson in New York City, a few short months before Morgan died, would rank at the top of the list. In today’s world, it would be like meeting Howard Hughes in Las Vegas and invited to his penthouse for a cup of coffee.
J.P. Morgan was one of the richest, most powerful men in the world, and dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation: Edison General Electric and Thompson Electric to form General Electric— Federal
Steel and Carnegie Steel to form United States Steel Corporation. In 1902 he formed the International Mercantile Marine Company which eventually owned the White Star Line—the builder and operator of the
RMS Titanic.
J.P. Morgan was a physically big man with massive shoulders and piercing eyes. The victim of a childhood
skin disease called rosacca ,which in later years greatly deformed his nose and turned it purple, J.P. Morgan hated to have his photograph taken because of this deformity. Morgan only sat for studio photographs which would be retouched. He reportedly struck several photographers that had tried to take his picture without permission. It is rumored that this ‘candid’ photo (the last one ever taken of the great man) was allowed because Thomas A. Edison, a friend of Eddie Jackson’s asked J.P. Morgan during a business meeting if he would allow it when they went to lunch. When they appeared on the street Edison gave Eddie a nod and this single snap-shot was taken. To our knowledge, it has never before been published.
