The dominant figure in the sugar-refining business of the late nineteenth century, Henry Osborne Havemeyer (1847-1907) controlled the so-called "Sugar Trust." He was also known for his extensive art collection, assembled with the help of his second wife.

Henry O. Havemeyer was born on October 18, 1847, in Commack on Long Island. He was the youngest of four sons born to Frederick Christian Havemeyer and his wife, Sarah Osborne (Townsend) Havemeyer. The Havemeyer family had been in the sugar-refining business for two generations in the United States. Havemeyer's grandfather, a German immigrant who came to America in the early 1800s, had established a modest sugar refining business with his brothers. This eventually made him a wealthy man. Upon his death, when Havemeyer was 14 years old, he left an estate worth $3 million. Partnering with his cousin William F. Havemeyer, who also was a three-term mayor of New York, Frederick Havemeyer further...