Rosenwald
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
JULIUS, an American merchant and philanthropist. He was born at Springfield, Ill., in 1862, and in 1879 became connected with Hammerslough Brothers, wholesale clothiers, New York. In 1885 he became president of Rosenwald & Weil, Chicago, and later became vice-president and then president of Sears, Roebuck & Co., mail order business, Chicago. In 1916 he was appointed member of the Advisory Commission of the Council of National Defense and chairman of the commission on supplies. He has contributed time and money to civic, philanthropic, and educational enterprises and on his fiftieth birthday gave about $700,000 to the University of Chicago, Social Workers Country Club and other institutions. He gave handsomely to Y. M. C. A. buildings for colored men and to colored people in the South. ROSE OF JERICHO (Anastatica hierochuntica), a plant of the natural order Cruciferæ, which grows in the sandy deserts of Arabia, and on rubbish, the roofs of houses, and other situations in Syria and other parts of the East. It is a small, bushy, herbaceous plant, seldom more than six inches high, with small white flowers; and after it has flowered the leaves fall off, and the branches become incurved toward the center, so that the plant assumes an almost globular form, and in this state it is often blown about by the wind in the desert. When it happens to be blown into water the branches expand again, and the pods open and let out the seeds. Numerous superstitions are connected with this plant, which is called Rosa Mariæ or Rose of the Virgin. If taken up before it is quite withered the plant retains for years its hygrometric property of contracting in drought and expanding in moisture.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
When Collier's wrote this in 1921 Rosenwald was still living, and his giving was summarized as gifts to the University of Chicago and to Y.M.C.A. buildings "for colored men." The much larger work came after: the Julius Rosenwald Fund, which by the 1930s had helped build some 5,000 schools for Black children across the rural South, usually on a matching basis with local Black communities that raised money and labor themselves. Rosenwald died in 1932, having directed that the Fund spend itself out of existence rather than endure — it closed in 1948 — and he also founded Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry, which opened in 1933. The "Rosenwald schools" are now a recognized preservation cause, and Rosenwald Fund fellowships supported figures including Marian Anderson, Jacob Lawrence and Ralph Ellison.
Written for this edition, 2026.