Frederick Baldwin Adams Jr.

For other uses, see Frederick Adams (disambiguation).

Frederick Baldwin Adams, Jr. (March 28, 1910 – January 7, 2001) 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 (a first cousin of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt) and Frederick Baldwin Adams, he married as his second wife, 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, (New York City), 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.

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.

References

• St. Bernard's Bio
• Biography of his father