James A. Garland

James A. Garland was a fine example of business ability and high character, which gave him an honorable reputation and success at the beginning of his career and which continued uninterrupted to the end. He was a native of Philadelphia, came to New York in the early sixties, and soon was recognized as one of the ablest financiers in the country. He was vice president of the First National Bank for twenty-four years and a director in many railroads and corporations; and his business sagacity and skill were largely instrumental in producing the success of all the enterprises with which he was connected. He was a public-spirited, useful citizen, active in the support of the Natural History and Geographical Societies, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art; artistic in his tastes, the possessor of the finest porcelain collection in the country, which he made himself, lavishly generous in his endowments to Harvard University, bright and genial in his disposition, with hosts of friends and an ornament to the city of his home.

Henry E. Howland
1901 Century Association Yearbook