Viner, Jacob, 1892-1970, American economist, b. Montreal. He taught at the Univ. of Chicago (1919-46) and Princeton Univ. (1946-60). A specialist on the subject of international trade, Viner was an adviser on trade issues to the U.S. Treasury (1934-37)and the State Dept. (1943-52). Viner's work ranges from specialized writings on the theory of costs in The Long View and the Short (1931), in which he laid out the envelope cost curve, to such histories of economic thought as Studies in the Theory of International Trade (1937) and Essays on the Intellectual History of Economics (ed. by Douglas A. Irwin, 1991).

Tonson, Jacob, 1656?-1736, English publisher. He and his brother Richard purchased the publication rights to Milton's Paradise Lost, a transaction later claimed as the firm's most profitable. With John Dryden he published a series of miscellany volumes (6 vol., 1684-1709), edited by Dryden and often referred to as Dryden's miscellany or Tonson's miscellany. Tonson was secretary of the Kit-Cat Club, a literary club which he founded c.1700, and was publisher of works by Addison, Steele, and Pope, among others.

Thompson, Jacob, 1810-85, U.S. Representative (1839-51) and Secretary of the Interior (1857-61), b. Caswell co., N.C. Thompson was a prosperous lawyer and prominent Democrat of Oxford, Miss. He was a member of President Buchanan's cabinet until the Fort Sumter crisis, and Mississippi's secession led him to resign in Jan., 1861. In the Civil War he served in the Confederate army, and in 1864 he became a Confederate agent in Canada. There he tried unsuccessfully to persuade Copperhead elements in the North to take up arms against the Union. Falsely accused of complicity in President Lincoln's assassination, he fled to Europe, where he remained for several years, and later lived in Memphis.

Schurman, Jacob Gould, 1854-1942, American educator and diplomat, b. Freetown, Prince Edward Island. His education was completed in London, Edinburgh, and, as Hibbert fellow, in Heidelberg, Berlin, and Göttingen. In 1886 he became head of the philosophy department at Cornell Univ. Schurman won a notable reputation as teacher, speaker, founder and editor of the Philosophical Review, and author of The Ethical Import of Darwinism (1887) and other philosophical works. In 1892 he succeeded Charles K. Adams as president of Cornell. In that office until 1920, he helped in the expansion of the university. He headed the first U.S. Philippines Commission (1899), was joint author of its report, and wrote Philippine Affairs (1902). Schurman served (1912-13) as minister to Greece, returning to write The Balkan Wars, 1912-1913 (1914); later he was envoy to China (1921-25) and ambassador to Germany (1925-30).

Schiff, Jacob Henry, 1847-1920, American banker and philanthropist, b. Frankfurt, Germany. He emigrated to the United States in 1865 and became a partner in a brokerage house in New York City. At the age of 38 he was head of the banking house of Kuhn, Loeb and Company. Schiff became associated with E. H. Harriman in notable contests with the house of Morgan for control of Western railroads. His numerous philanthropies included the endowment of the Jewish Theological Seminary, the Montefiore Home, both in New York, and a museum at Harvard.

Ruysdael, Jacob van: see Ruisdael, Jacob van.

Ruisdael or Ruysdael, Jacob van, c.1628-1682, Dutch painter and etcher, the most celebrated of the Dutch landscape painters. He studied with his father Isack and perhaps with his uncle Salomon van Ruysdael, a well-known Haarlem landscapist. He first worked in Haarlem, moveing to Amsterdam in 1656. Late in life, he obtained a medical degree and practiced as a physician. Ruisdael's characteristic work shows northern nature in a somber mood. His dramatic skies are usually overcast, throwing a restless flux of light over the countryside. Gnarled, knotted oak and beech trees are rendered with extraordinary accuracy. Ruisdael's later works show great breadth of stroke, dramatizing humanity's insignificance amid the splendor of nature. Important paintings include Jewish Cemetery (c.1655, Detroit Inst. of Art) and Wheatfields (c.1670, Metropolitan Mus.). He also produced some very fine etchings. Possessed of a romantic sensibility before the advent of romanticism, Ruisdael anticipated and inspired many of the great French and English landscapists of the next two centuries. Of his pupils, Meindert Hobbema was the most outstanding. The Rijks Museum, the National Gallery, London, and many American collections have examples of his work.

Riis, Jacob August, 1849-1914, Danish-American journalist, photographer, and social reformer, b. Denmark. He immigrated to the United States in 1870. In 1877 he became a police reporter for the New York Tribune and later for the New York Evening Sun. His reports on slum dwellings and the abuses of lower-class, largely immigrant life in New York City culminated in his first book, How the Other Half Lives (1890), a groundbreaking work of photojournalism, and earned him the admiration and friendship of Theodore Roosevelt. Riis founded a pioneer settlement house in New York (named for him in 1901). His association with the public park and playground movements was commemorated by the Jacob Riis Park on Long Island.

Oost, Jacob van, the elder, 1601-71, Flemish portrait and religious painter, b. Bruges. He spent most of his life in Bruges, with the exception of several years in Rome, where he was a pupil of Annibale Carracci. A follower also of Rubens and Caravaggio, he developed a vigorous and realistic style. There are various pictures by van Oost in the churches of Bruges; Resurrection and Descent from the Cross are in the cathedral. His son and pupil, Jacob van Oost, the younger, 1637-1713, settled in Lille, where he continued his father's tradition. Much of his work remains in the churches and museums of that city.

Obrecht, Jacob, c.1450-1505, Flemish composer. Obrecht was ordained as a priest in 1480. He wrote an early four-part setting of the St. Matthew Passion. His sacred music combined the polyphony of Johannes Ockeghem with folk elements. An edition of Obrecht's works, ed. by Johannes Wolf (7 vol., 1908-21), contains 24 masses, 22 motets, chansons, and his famous Passion According to St. Matthew. Obrecht was a victim of the plague.

Miller, Alfred Jacob, 1810-74, American artist, b. Baltimore, studied under Thomas Sully and in Europe. In 1837 he joined an expedition to the American West and was probably the first artist to depict the Rocky Mts. On that trip he produced his most important works, chiefly studies of Native American and frontier life, valuable for their documentary detail. These sketches and watercolors were entirely forgotten for nearly a century until they were rediscovered in a storeroom of the Peale Museum, Baltimore.

Maerlant, Jacob van, c.1235-c.1300, Flemish poet, earliest important figure of Dutch literature. He wrote lyric poems and chivalric verse romances after the French as well as long didactic poems, chief of which is Spiegel historiael, an adaptation of the Speculum of Vincent of Beauvais. Jacob van Maerlant is an early literary representative of the bourgeois spirit.

Lennep, Jacob van, 1802-68, Dutch writer. He was state's attorney (1852) and served in the legislature (1853-56). He is best known for his historical novels influenced by Walter Scott, which include The Adopted Son (1833, tr. 1844) and The Rose of Dekama (1836, tr. 1847). He also wrote verse; translated Byron, Tennyson, and others; and wrote on Vondel, whose works he edited.

Leisler, Jacob, 1640-91, leader of an insurrection (1689-91) in colonial New York, b. Frankfurt, Germany. He immigrated to America in 1660 as a penniless soldier, married a wealthy widow, and became a trader in New York. The overthrow (1688) of the Roman Catholic James II and accession of William III and Mary II in England caused uprisings in the colonies, where many royal officials were suspected of being Roman Catholics, and fear of a Catholic French invasion prevailed. Leisler, a Protestant champion, in 1689 gained control of S New York with the aid of militia, proclaimed the new sovereigns, and was appointed commander in chief by his followers. The lieutenant governor, Francis Nicholson, fled the country and Leisler assumed his office upon seizure of letters from King William that he interpreted as authorization. The council at Albany eventually recognized his authority, although he was bitterly opposed by the rich and aristocratic faction. Leisler maintained power through military force and the suppression of opposition. Meanwhile, William commissioned Col. Henry Sloughter as governor, and troops were dispatched to New York under Major Richard Ingoldesby, who, arriving early in 1691, sided with the faction opposed to Leisler and demanded the surrender of the fort on Manhattan island. Leisler refused, and fighting broke out. On the arrival of Sloughter, Leisler surrendered, was tried as a traitor, and was hanged in May, 1691. Parliament, in 1695, on petition of the Leisler family, passed an act reversing the attainder and later voted an indemnity to his heirs.

Lawrence, Jacob, 1917-2000, American painter, b. Atlantic City, N.J. In Lawrence's work social themes, often detailing the African-American experience, are expressed in colorfully angular, simplified, expressive, and richly decorative figurative effects. He executed many cycles of paintings, often narrative, including Harriet Tubman (1939-40), Migration (completed 1941, Museum of Modern Art and Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.), Coast Guard (1943-45), and Builders series, on which he worked for parts of the last 50 years of his life. His War series and Tombstones are in the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City. Also known for the vivid prints he began producing in 1963 and his monumental mosaic mural (designed 1997, installed 2001) for the New York subway system, Lawrence taught at Black Mountain College, the Univ. of Washington School of Art, several other colleges, and a number of major New York City art schools. In 1941 he married Gwendolyn Knight, 1913-2005, an American painter and sculptor, b. Bridgetown, Barbados.

Jordaens, Jacob, 1593-1678, Flemish baroque painter, b. Antwerp. After the deaths of Rubens and Van Dyck, by whom he was influenced, he became the leading Flemish painter of his day and worked in Antwerp nearly all his life. Like Rubens, Jordaens produced portraits and religious and allegorical paintings, often expressing a joy of life. In early works (c.1612-25), such as The Artist's Family (Hermitage, St. Petersburg) and Allegory of Fertility (Brussels), he reveals the influence of Caravaggio in his firm modeling and realistically treated surface. Works executed c.1625-35 show increased grandeur and richness (Triumph of Bacchus; Kassel), and in the next years Rubens and Van Dyck influences are especially clear. In the last 25 years of his life, Jordaens stressed increasingly the classicist elements in baroque art, moving from the energetic Triumph of Prince Frederik Hendrik of Orange (The Hague) to the more rigidly composed Christ and the Doctors (Mainz). Examples of his work may be seen in many of the major museums of Europe and the United States.

Javits, Jacob Koppel, 1904-86, American political leader, b. New York City, LL.B., New York Univ., 1927. He and his brother, Benjamin A. Javits (1894-1973), developed a flourishing legal practice. Entering politics as a supporter of Fiorello H. LaGuardia, he was active in local politics before his election (1946) as a Republican to the U.S. House of Representatives. After serving four terms (1947-55), he was elected (1954) New York state attorney general. In 1956 he was elected to the Senate, where he served four terms (1957-81). One of the most prominent liberal Republican senators, he was a strong advocate of civil-rights legislation. In 1980, already very ill, he was defeated for reelection in the Republican primary and then ran unsuccessfully on the Liberal ticket. His writings include Discrimination U.S.A. (1960).

Jacobi, Carl Gustav Jacob, 1804-51, German mathematician. He was an outstanding teacher and was professor of mathematics at Königsberg (1827-42) and lectured at Berlin from 1844. One of the greatest algorists of all time, he is noted for his work on elliptic functions, described in his Fundamenta Nova Theoriae Functionum Ellipticarum (1829), and on determinants, the theory of numbers, differential equations, and dynamics. His brother, Moritz Hermann Jacobi, 1801-74, was a physicist and engineer who was the more famous of the two during their lifetimes. He was known for his supposed discovery (1837) of galvanoplastics, but his reputation faded when his ideas were later shown to be mistaken.

Jacob, Max, 1876-1944, French writer and painter, b. Brittany. His dream-inspired verse, plays, novels, and paintings bridged and gave impetus to the symbolist and surrealist schools. His conversion (1914) from Judaism to Roman Catholicism had great impact on his work. Among Jacob's novels are Saint Matorel (1911) and Filibuth; ou La Montre en or (1922); his verse, usually light and ironic, includes Fond de l'eau (1927) and Rivages (1932). Prose and poetry are combined in his Défense de Tartufe (1919) and the play Le Siège de Jérusalem: drame céleste (1912-14). His critical study, Art poétique (1922), had wide influence. One-man shows of Jacob's paintings were held in New York in 1930 and 1938. He died in a Nazi concentration camp.

Jacob, François, 1920-, French biologist, educated at the Sorbonne. His medical studies were interrupted by World War II. He joined the Free French Forces and fought in Africa and during the liberation of Paris. In 1950 he joined the Pasteur Institute, and in 1964 he became professor at the Collège de France. He shared the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with André Lwoff and Jacques Monod for work in genetics, especially his proposal, with Monod, of a mechanism for the regulation of the expression of genes. Jacob and Monod coined the term messenger RNA. Jacob's writings include The Logic of Life: A History of Heredity (1974).

Jacob, in the Bible, ancestor of the Hebrews, the younger of Isaac and Rebecca's twin sons; the older was Esau. In exchange for a bowl of lentil soup, Jacob obtained Esau's birthright and, with his mother's help, received the blessing that the dying Isaac had intended for his older son. Esau became so enraged that Jacob fled to his uncle, Laban, in Paddan-aram. On his way, at Bethel, he had a vision of angels ascending and descending the ladder to heaven. After 20 years serving Laban, Jacob started back to his native land with his two wives, Leah and Rachel, and his many sons—the eponymous ancestors of the 12 tribes of Israel. On the banks of the Jabbok, Jacob wrestled with an angel, received the name of Israel, and reconciled with Esau the next day. Later, Jacob migrated to Egypt, where he was reunited with his son Joseph. Jacob died there, but his sons buried him in the family plot at Machpelah. Modern biblical scholars question the historicity of Jacob. In the New Testament the name James is equivalent to the Hebrew Jacob.

Huysmans, Jacob, c.1633-1696, Flemish portrait painter. In the reign of Charles II he settled in England, where he became one of the fashionable painters of the court. His chief portraits are those of Izaak Walton and Catherine of Braganza, wife of Charles II (both: National Gall., London), done in the style of Lely.

Henle, Jacob (Friedrich Gustav Jakob Henle), 1809-85, German anatomist and histologist. A pupil of J. P. Müller, he taught at Zürich, Heidelberg, and Göttingen. He contributed pioneer work on the microscopic structure of tissues, including the renal tubules that bear his name, epithelium, hair, and blood vessels. He anticipated Pasteur in his theory that microorganisms cause infectious diseases. He wrote Handbuch der systematischen Anatomie (3 vol., 1866-71) and other important works.

Harmensen, Jacob: see Arminius, Jacobus.

Gordin, Jacob Mikhailovich, 1853-1909, American writer of Yiddish plays, b. Russia. He was for some years a teacher and a newspaper writer in St. Petersburg, Odessa, and elsewhere. In 1880 he founded the Bible Brotherhood, a reform movement of Judaism. After the movement was suppressed, he left Russia in 1891 for the United States. In New York City he found the Yiddish stage in need of good plays, and for the rest of his life he wrote (more than 70), translated, and adapted plays in the vernacular. Among the best of these were Siberia; God, Man, and the Devil; The Jewish King Lear; The Jewish Sappho; and The Kreutzer Sonata (an English translation was produced in 1907). His collected plays were published (1910) in Yiddish in New York.

Frank, Jacob, c.1726-1791, Polish Jewish sectarian and adventurer, b. Podolia as Jacob Ben Judah Leib. He founded the Frankists, a heretical Jewish sect that was an anti-Talmudic outgrowth of the mysticism of the false Messiah Sabbatai Zevi. After traveling in Turkey, where he was called Frank and where he joined the Sabbatean sect, he returned (c.1755) to Podolia. Posing as a Messiah, Frank gathered a following, by whom he was addressed as "holy master." Professing to find in the kabbalah the doctrine of Trinitarianism and feigning conversion to Roman Catholicism, he and the Frankists were baptized (1759). The church, however, soon became suspicious of its new converts' sincerity, and in 1760, Frank was arrested in Warsaw on a charge of heresy and imprisoned in the fortress of Czestochowa; he was released (1773) after that section of Poland became Russian. Moving to Moravia, he enjoyed the favor of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, who believed him a disseminator of Christianity. When she discovered his sectarianism, Frank fled to Offenbach, Germany, where he lived in luxury, supported by Polish and Moravian Frankists. Upon his death his daughter Eve became "holy mistress" of the Frankists. She died in 1816, and the sect eventually disappeared, most of its members having actually become Catholics. Many of them later became prominent members of the Polish nobility.

Esch, John Jacob, 1861-1941, U.S. Congressman and federal administrator, b. Norwalk, Wis. A lawyer in La Crosse, he became a member of the House of Representatives in 1899 and served until 1921, distinguishing himself as co-author of the Transportation Act (Esch-Cummins Act) of 1920. He was a member of the Interstate Commerce Commission from 1921 to 1928, when his renomination was rejected by the Senate because he allegedly was responsible for rates favoring Pennsylvania coal mines and discriminating against Southern mines. Esch was president of the American Peace Society from 1930 to 1938.

Epstein, Sir Jacob, 1880-1959, sculptor, b. New York City. He studied with Rodin in Paris and later worked chiefly in England. In revolt against the ornate and the pretty in art, Epstein produced bold, often harsh and massive forms in stone or bronze that were the subjects of frequent controversy. His 18 large figures on the British Medical Association Building (1907-8) were removed in 1937 as offensive and structurally dangerous. Epstein's major pieces include the Oscar Wilde Memorial (1911; Père-Lachaise, Paris); a marble Venus (1917; Yale Univ., New Haven, Conn.); a bronze Christ (1919; Wheathamstead, England); the "Rima" figure that forms the W. H. Hudson Memorial (1925; Hyde Park, London); an enormous Adam in alabaster (1939; Blackpool, England); figures for Fairmount Park, Philadelphia; and a Madonna and Child (Convent of the Holy Child Jesus, London). Some of Epstein's best-known work is in bronze portraiture, executed with roughly textured surfaces. His perceptive portraits include those of the duke of Marlborough, Joseph Conrad, Albert Einstein, and Jawaharlal Nehru. Epstein was knighted in 1954. See his autobiography (2d ed. 1963); drawings ed. by Kathleen Epstein (1962); study by Robert Black (1942).

Eichholtz, Jacob, 1776-1842, American portrait painter, b. Lancaster, Pa.; pupil of Gilbert Stuart in Boston but mainly self-taught. He painted portraits of some of the most prominent men of the day, and he also painted family groups. He was especially successful in handling textures. Among his portraits are those of Chief Justices John Marshall (Historical Society of Penn., Philadelphia) and John Bannister Gibson (Philadelphia Law Association); James Buchanan (Smithsonian Institution); Col. James Gibson (capitol, Dover, Del.); and Nicholas Biddle.

Deventer, Sir Jacob Louis van, 1874?-1922, Boer general. In the South African War he commanded guerrilla forces in the Cape Colony. During World War I he helped suppress a Boer extremist outbreak against the government. Deventer also participated in the campaigns against Germany in South West Africa (1914-15) and in former German East Africa (1917-18).

Coxey, Jacob Sechler, 1854-1951, American social reformer, b. Selinsgrove, Pa. He began his career as a stationary engineer, later turning to the scrap-iron business and then to sandstone quarrying in Massillon, Ohio. Interested in the problem of the unemployed, he advocated public works, financed by fiat money, as a remedy. He was Republican mayor (1931-33) of Massillon but was an unsuccessful candidate for many major public offices, including the presidency in 1932 and 1936. He was most famous, however, as the leader of Coxey's Army, a band of jobless men who marched to Washington, D.C., following the Panic of 1893, to petition Congress for measures that they hoped would relieve unemployment and distress. Coxey was aided by Carl Browne, a skilled agitator with curious religious notions. By wide advertising Coxey gathered more than 100 men and left Massillon with them on Easter Sunday, 1894, intending to reach Washington for a May Day demonstration. The "army," named the Commonweal of Christ by Browne, was met by crowds in every city through which it passed. It had an anticlimactic and ineffectual ending when, reaching Washington with c.500 men instead of the proclaimed 100,000, its leaders were arrested for walking on the Capitol lawn. Coxey's was only one of several industrial "armies" that in those months started from different sections of the country for the capital.

Cox, Jacob Dolson, 1828-1900, Union general in the Civil War and American statesman, b. Montreal, of a New York City family. Admitted to the Ohio bar in 1853, he was active in organizing the new Republican party there and served (1859-61) in the state senate. Cox, made a brigadier general of volunteers early in the Civil War, served ably in the Kanawha valley and Antietam campaigns and commanded in West Virginia (1862-63) and Ohio (Apr.-Dec., 1863). He later led a corps in the Atlanta campaign (1864), fought at Nashville (Dec., 1864), and finished his service with Sherman in North Carolina. He had risen to be a major general of volunteers and, returning home a hero, was elected governor of Ohio for the term 1866-68. Because he supported President Andrew Johnson on Reconstruction against the radical Republicans, he was not renominated. Nevertheless U. S. Grant, on assuming the presidency, made Cox his Secretary of the Interior. This was one of Grant's few good appointments. Cox, however, advocated and practiced civil service reform and opposed the President on other points, notably the move to annex Santo Domingo. The Republican spoilsmen had long been hostile to him, and in Oct., 1870, Cox resigned from the cabinet and became identified with the Liberal Republicans. He later served one term in Congress (1877-79), was dean of the Cincinnati Law School for 16 years beginning in 1881, and also served as president of the Univ. of Cincinnati from 1885 to 1889. He wrote ably on military affairs. His books include Atlanta (1882), The Battle of Franklin (1897), The March to the Sea (1898), and Military Reminiscences of the Civil War (1900). Kenyon Cox was his son.

Carstens, Asmus Jacob, 1754-98, German historical painter and engraver, b. Schleswig. He studied in Copenhagen and in Italy. He was influenced by the work of Giulio Romano. Carstens was a popular professor at the Berlin Academy where, through such pupils as Peter von Cornelius, he had a great influence on German historical painting. Homer Singing is a characteristic work.

Camerarius, Rudolph Jacob, 1665-1721, German botanist and physician. The first to present a clear and definite picture of sex in plants, Camerarius based his conclusions on careful experiments and observations. He described the stamen as the male organ and the ovary as the female organ and emphasized their relationship to the formation of seeds. He became a professor at the Univ. of Tübingen in 1688.

Burckhardt, Jacob or Jakob Christoph, 1818-97, Swiss historian, one of the founders of the cultural interpretation of history. He studied under Ranke at the Univ. of Berlin and taught (1844-53, 1858-93) art history and history at the Univ. of Basel. His best-known work is Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien (1860, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, available in many English editions). It remains the classic on the subject, although its primarily political and cultural interpretation of the Renaissance is controversial among historians. Believing in a pattern of culture peculiar to each age, Burckhardt found the shift from corporate medieval society to the modern spirit occurring in Italy in the 14th and 15th cent. The strife between empire and papacy had created a political and moral vacuum, leading to the birth of the modern self-conscious state and the liberation of the creative individual. Burckhardt saw Renaissance humanism as the revival of classical antiquity, and the era as one of man's joyous new discovery of himself and the world about him. He profoundly influenced his friend Nietzsche, and the work of J. A. Symonds is based largely on Burckhardt's synthesis. In The Age of Constantine the Great (1852, tr. 1949), Burckhardt analyzed the transition from classical times to the Middle Ages. Among his other works on history and art is Cicerone (1855), a guide to Italian art. Selections from his posthumously published lecture notes on ancient Greece have appeared in translation as The Greeks and Greek Civilization (1998). Burckhardt feared that spiritual and aesthetic human values were doomed to submersion by the rise of industrial democracy.

Brown, Jacob Jennings, 1775-1828, American general, b. Bucks co., Pa. In the War of 1812 he defeated (May, 1813) a British attempt to take Sackets Harbor, N.Y., and the next year became commander of the Niagara frontier. Brown crossed the Niagara, took Fort Erie, and drove the British back toward York (now Toronto). On July 25, 1814, he fought the battle of Lundy's Lane, in which he was wounded. From 1821 to 1828 he was general-in-chief of the U.S. army.

Astor, John Jacob, 1763-1848, American merchant, b. Walldorf, near Heidelberg, Germany. At the age of 16 he went to England, and five years later, in 1784, he arrived in Baltimore, penniless. He later went to New York City, where in a few years he entered into business with a small shop for trade in musical instruments and furs. Shrewdness, driving ambition, and stolid concentration brought him to a commanding position in the burgeoning economy of the United States. He became a leader of the China trade and was an astute investor in lands, principally in and around New York City, but he is perhaps best remembered as a fur trader. He chartered the American Fur Company (1808) and founded subsidiary companies—the Pacific Fur Company (see Astoria, Oreg.) and the South West Company (operating around the Great Lakes). His firm exercised a virtual monopoly of the trade in U.S. territories in the 1820s and still did when he retired from it in 1834. The wealthiest man in the United States at his death, he left a fortune that has continued to make the family name prominent. Part of his money went to found the Astor Library (see New York Public Library). His Astor House was a forerunner of family hotel properties that much later included the Astor Hotel and the Waldorf-Astoria.

Astor, John Jacob, 1822-90, American financier, b. New York City, educated at Columbia and Göttingen universities and at Harvard law school; son of William Backhouse Astor (1792-1875). He served in the Peninsular campaign in the Civil War and later took a minor part in New York civic and political affairs. His son was William Waldorf Astor.

Astor, John Jacob, 1864-1912, American financier, b. Rhinebeck, N. Y.; son of William Backhouse Astor (1829-92). He served in the Spanish-American War. Drowned in the Titanic disaster, he left two sons, Vincent, the son of his first marriage, and John Jacob Astor, fifth of the name in America, the son of his second marriage.

Artevelde, Jacob van, c.1290-1345, Flemish statesman, of a wealthy family of Ghent. In 1337 the Flemish cloth industry underwent a severe crisis. The pro-French policy of the count of Flanders in the conflict between Edward III of England and Philip VI of France cut off English wool imports and thus ruined the Flemish merchants and weavers. Ghent rebelled, and Artevelde was given dictatorial powers as head of the city government. He negotiated (1338) a commercial treaty with England and obtained recognition of Flemish neutrality. The other towns of Flanders followed his lead, the count fled to France, and trade revived and prospered. In 1340, Artevelde had Edward III recognized as king of France (and thus suzerain of Flanders) by the Flemish towns. Artevelde's firm leadership and wealthy origin inevitably aroused resentment. Enemies accused him of proposing the lordship of Flanders to Edward the Black Prince (of England). In 1345 a riot broke out in Ghent, and Artevelde was killed by the mob.

Arcadelt, Jacob, c.1505-1568, Flemish composer, b. Liège. He spent much of his time at the Papal court in Rome. After 1555 he was in Paris in the service of the duke of Guise. Arcadelt was one of many Netherlander composers who worked in Italy. He wrote Italian madrigals, French chansons, masses, and motets.

Albright, Jacob, 1759-1808, American religious leader, founder of the Evangelical Association (later the Evangelical Church), b. near Pottstown, Pa. A German Lutheran, he was converted c.1790 to Methodism. Preaching and forming classes among his converts in the German settlements, he was ordained a minister (1803) by representatives from these classes and was elected bishop in 1807. The movement, unrecognized by the Methodists, did not take the name Evangelical Association until after Albright's death. The Evangelical Church in 1946 united with the United Brethren in Christ to form the Evangelical United Brethren Church.

Al-Fasi, Isaac ben Jacob ha-Kohen, 1013-1103, prominent Jewish Talmudic scholar of the very late Gaonic period, b. near Fès, N Africa. He headed the rabbinical school at Fès until forced out at the age of 75 by political intrigues. He then settled in Lucena, Spain, where he established a school. His Halachoth [book of laws] contains a digest of legal decisions distilled from the Talmud. It played a significant role in establishing the supremacy of the Babylonian over the Palestinian Talmud and the 1881 edition is appended to regular editions of the Talmud. He is also known for his collection of Responsa, many of which were written in Arabic and later translated into Hebrew.

Abel, John Jacob, 1857-1938, American pharmacologist, b. Cleveland, grad. Univ. of Michigan, 1883, M.D. Univ. of Strasbourg, 1888. Professor of pharmacology (1893-1932) and director of the laboratory for endocrine research (from 1932) at Johns Hopkins, he is known for the isolation of epinephrine (adrenaline) in 1898 and later of insulin in crystalline form. Other contributions include the isolation of amino acids from the blood. He was a founder and editor (1909-32) of the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.

(born Nov. 10, 1880, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died Aug. 21, 1959, London, Eng.) U.S.-born British sculptor. He studied in Paris and settled in England in 1905. His 18 nude figures known as the Strand Statues (1907–08) provoked charges of indecency; his nude angel on the tomb of Oscar Wilde (1912) in Paris was also attacked. In 1913 he became affiliated with Vorticism and developed a style characterized by simple forms and calm surfaces carved from stone; his works often partly retained the shape of the original block, or sometimes they were modeled in plaster. He is best known for religious and allegorical figures carved in colossal blocks of stone and for bronze portrait busts of celebrities. Occasionally he produced monumental bronze groups, such as St. Michael and the Devil (1958) for Coventry Cathedral.

Learn more about Epstein, Sir Jacob with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born , Jan. 10, 1847, Frankfurt am Main—died Sept. 25, 1920, New York, N.Y., U.S.) German-born U.S. financier and philanthropist. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1865 and in 1875 joined the investment-banking firm of Kuhn, Loeb & Co. He succeeded his father-in-law as head of the firm in 1885 and became one of the leading railroad bankers in the U.S. He played a pivotal role in the reorganization of several transcontinental lines, notably the Union Pacific Railroad and the Northern Pacific Railway. During the Russo-Japanese War he sold Japanese bonds in the U.S., for which he was decorated by the emperor of Japan. His extensive philanthropies included large contributions to Barnard College and the Jewish Theological Seminary.

Learn more about Schiff, Jacob H(enry) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

German Rudolph Camerer

(born Feb. 17, 1665, Tübingen, Ger.—died Sept. 11, 1721, Tübingen) German botanist. One of the first to perform experiments in heredity, he demonstrated sexuality in plants by identifying and defining the male and female reproductive parts of the plant and by describing their function in fertilization, showing that pollen is required for the process.

Learn more about Camerarius, Rudolph (Jacob) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born May 3, 1849, Ribe, Den.—died May 26, 1914, Barre, Mass., U.S.) U.S. journalist and social reformer. He immigrated to the U.S. at 21 and became a police reporter for the New York Tribune (1877–88) and the New York Evening Sun (1888–99). He publicized the deplorable living conditions in the slums of New York's Lower East Side, photographing the rooms and hallways of tenements. He compiled his findings in How the Other Half Lives (1890), a book that stirred the nation's conscience and spurred the state's first significant legislation to improve tenements.

Learn more about Riis, Jacob A(ugust) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born July 10, 1830, St. Thomas, Danish West Indies—died Nov. 13, 1903, Paris, France) West Indian-born French painter. The son of a prosperous Jewish merchant, he moved to Paris in 1855. His earliest canvases are broadly painted figure paintings and landscapes; these show the careful observation of nature that was to remain a characteristic of his art. In 1871 he took a house in Pontoise, in the countryside outside Paris. These surroundings formed the theme of his art for some 30 years. Pissarro's leading motifs during the 1870s and 1880s were houses, factories, trees, haystacks, fields, labouring peasants, and river scenes. In these works, forms do not dissolve but remain firm, and colours are strong; during the latter part of the 1870s his comma-like brushstrokes frequently recorded the sparkling scintillation of light. These works were admired by the Impressionist artists; Pissarro was the only Impressionist painter who participated in all eight of the group's exhibitions. Despite acute eye trouble, his later years were his most prolific.

Learn more about Pissarro, (Jacob-Abraham-) Camille with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born 1640, Frankfurt am Main—died May 16, 1691, New York, N.Y.) German-born colonial insurrectionist. He immigrated to New Netherland (New York) in 1660 and became a wealthy merchant. Objecting to the British unification of New York and New England (1685–89), he led the revolt called Leisler's Rebellion, established himself as lieutenant governor of the province (1689–91), and called the first intercolonial congress (1690) to plan action against the French and Indians. When he reluctantly surrendered to a new British governor, he was charged with treason and hanged, along with his son-in-law.

Learn more about Leisler, Jacob with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Sept. 7, 1917, Atlantic City, N.J., U.S.—died June 9, 2000, Seattle, Wash.) U.S. painter. He moved with his family at 13 to New York City's Harlem. Art classes sponsored by the Works Progress Administration in 1932 developed his talent. His works portray scenes of African American life and history with vivid, stylized realism. Gouache and tempera were Lawrence's characteristic media. His use of sombre browns and black for shadows and outlines in an otherwise vibrant palette lent his work a distinctive overtone. His best-known works are his series on historical and social themes, such as Life in Harlem (1942) and War (1947). His later works include a powerful series on the struggles of desegregation. From 1971 he taught at the University of Washington.

Learn more about Lawrence, Jacob with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(baptized May 20, 1593, Antwerp, Spanish Netherlands—died Oct. 18, 1678, Antwerp) Flemish painter active in Antwerp. He was admitted to the painters' guild in 1615 and by the 1620s had a flourishing studio with many students. After the death of Peter Paul Rubens, to whose Baroque style he was indebted, he became the leading painter in Flanders. His paintings, crowded with robust figures, are noted for strong contrasts of light and shade and an air of sensual vitality bordering on coarseness. He also produced religious paintings and portraits. His most important commissions were two enormous murals for the royal residence called the Huis ten Bosch, near The Hague. His later works are of uneven quality, showing the increasingly important role of his assistants.

Learn more about Jordaens, Jacob with a free trial on Britannica.com.

orig. Johann Jakob Astor

(born July 17, 1763, Waldorf, Ger.—died March 29, 1848, New York, N.Y., U.S.) German-born U.S. fur magnate and financier. After emigrating from Germany at age17, he opened a fur-goods shop in New York circa 1786. By 1800 he was a leader in the fur trade, and he established the American Fur Co. He controlled the fur trade with China (1800–17) and in the Mississippi and Missouri valleys (in the 1820s) before selling his interests in 1834. His investment in New York City real estate became the foundation of the family fortune. At his death, Astor was the wealthiest person in the U.S.; he willed $400,000 to found what became the New York Public Library. His son, William B. Astor (1792–1875), greatly expanded the family real-estate holdings, building more than 700 stores and dwellings in the city.

Learn more about Astor, John Jacob with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born 1640, Frankfurt am Main—died May 16, 1691, New York, N.Y.) German-born colonial insurrectionist. He immigrated to New Netherland (New York) in 1660 and became a wealthy merchant. Objecting to the British unification of New York and New England (1685–89), he led the revolt called Leisler's Rebellion, established himself as lieutenant governor of the province (1689–91), and called the first intercolonial congress (1690) to plan action against the French and Indians. When he reluctantly surrendered to a new British governor, he was charged with treason and hanged, along with his son-in-law.

Learn more about Leisler, Jacob with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Sept. 7, 1917, Atlantic City, N.J., U.S.—died June 9, 2000, Seattle, Wash.) U.S. painter. He moved with his family at 13 to New York City's Harlem. Art classes sponsored by the Works Progress Administration in 1932 developed his talent. His works portray scenes of African American life and history with vivid, stylized realism. Gouache and tempera were Lawrence's characteristic media. His use of sombre browns and black for shadows and outlines in an otherwise vibrant palette lent his work a distinctive overtone. His best-known works are his series on historical and social themes, such as Life in Harlem (1942) and War (1947). His later works include a powerful series on the struggles of desegregation. From 1971 he taught at the University of Washington.

Learn more about Lawrence, Jacob with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(baptized May 20, 1593, Antwerp, Spanish Netherlands—died Oct. 18, 1678, Antwerp) Flemish painter active in Antwerp. He was admitted to the painters' guild in 1615 and by the 1620s had a flourishing studio with many students. After the death of Peter Paul Rubens, to whose Baroque style he was indebted, he became the leading painter in Flanders. His paintings, crowded with robust figures, are noted for strong contrasts of light and shade and an air of sensual vitality bordering on coarseness. He also produced religious paintings and portraits. His most important commissions were two enormous murals for the royal residence called the Huis ten Bosch, near The Hague. His later works are of uneven quality, showing the increasingly important role of his assistants.

Learn more about Jordaens, Jacob with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born , Jan. 10, 1847, Frankfurt am Main—died Sept. 25, 1920, New York, N.Y., U.S.) German-born U.S. financier and philanthropist. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1865 and in 1875 joined the investment-banking firm of Kuhn, Loeb & Co. He succeeded his father-in-law as head of the firm in 1885 and became one of the leading railroad bankers in the U.S. He played a pivotal role in the reorganization of several transcontinental lines, notably the Union Pacific Railroad and the Northern Pacific Railway. During the Russo-Japanese War he sold Japanese bonds in the U.S., for which he was decorated by the emperor of Japan. His extensive philanthropies included large contributions to Barnard College and the Jewish Theological Seminary.

Learn more about Schiff, Jacob H(enry) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

orig. Jacob Leibowicz

(born 1726, Berezanka or Korolowka, Galicia, Pol.—died Dec. 10, 1791, Offenbach, Hessen) Jewish false messiah. He was an uneducated visionary who claimed to be the reincarnation of Shabbetai Tzevi. He proclaimed himself messiah in 1751 and founded the Frankist, or Zoharist, sect, based on the Sefer ha-zohar, which he sought to put in the place of the Torah. The sect rejected traditional Judaism, and their practices, including orgiastic rites, led the Jewish community to excommunicate them in 1756. Protected by Roman Catholic authorities, who hoped Frank would help in the conversion of the Jews, Frank and his followers were baptized in Poland. In 1760 he was imprisoned by the Inquisition, who had realized that Frank's followers regarded Frank, not Jesus, as the messiah. Freed in 1773 by invading Russians, he settled in Germany and lived as a baron until his death.

Learn more about Frank, Jacob with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born May 3, 1849, Ribe, Den.—died May 26, 1914, Barre, Mass., U.S.) U.S. journalist and social reformer. He immigrated to the U.S. at 21 and became a police reporter for the New York Tribune (1877–88) and the New York Evening Sun (1888–99). He publicized the deplorable living conditions in the slums of New York's Lower East Side, photographing the rooms and hallways of tenements. He compiled his findings in How the Other Half Lives (1890), a book that stirred the nation's conscience and spurred the state's first significant legislation to improve tenements.

Learn more about Riis, Jacob A(ugust) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Hebrew patriarch, son of Isaac and grandson of Abraham, and the traditional ancestor of the people of Israel. His story is told in the Book of Genesis. The younger twin brother of Esau, he used trickery to gain Isaac's blessing and Esau's birthright. On a journey to Canaan he wrestled all night with an angel, who blessed him and gave him the name Israel. Jacob had 13 children, 10 of whom founded tribes of Israel. His favorite son, Joseph, was sold into slavery in Egypt by his brothers, but the family was later reunited when a famine forced the brothers to go to Egypt to seek grain.

Learn more about Jacob with a free trial on Britannica.com.

orig. Jacob Leibowicz

(born 1726, Berezanka or Korolowka, Galicia, Pol.—died Dec. 10, 1791, Offenbach, Hessen) Jewish false messiah. He was an uneducated visionary who claimed to be the reincarnation of Shabbetai Tzevi. He proclaimed himself messiah in 1751 and founded the Frankist, or Zoharist, sect, based on the Sefer ha-zohar, which he sought to put in the place of the Torah. The sect rejected traditional Judaism, and their practices, including orgiastic rites, led the Jewish community to excommunicate them in 1756. Protected by Roman Catholic authorities, who hoped Frank would help in the conversion of the Jews, Frank and his followers were baptized in Poland. In 1760 he was imprisoned by the Inquisition, who had realized that Frank's followers regarded Frank, not Jesus, as the messiah. Freed in 1773 by invading Russians, he settled in Germany and lived as a baron until his death.

Learn more about Frank, Jacob with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Nov. 10, 1880, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died Aug. 21, 1959, London, Eng.) U.S.-born British sculptor. He studied in Paris and settled in England in 1905. His 18 nude figures known as the Strand Statues (1907–08) provoked charges of indecency; his nude angel on the tomb of Oscar Wilde (1912) in Paris was also attacked. In 1913 he became affiliated with Vorticism and developed a style characterized by simple forms and calm surfaces carved from stone; his works often partly retained the shape of the original block, or sometimes they were modeled in plaster. He is best known for religious and allegorical figures carved in colossal blocks of stone and for bronze portrait busts of celebrities. Occasionally he produced monumental bronze groups, such as St. Michael and the Devil (1958) for Coventry Cathedral.

Learn more about Epstein, Sir Jacob with a free trial on Britannica.com.

German Rudolph Camerer

(born Feb. 17, 1665, Tübingen, Ger.—died Sept. 11, 1721, Tübingen) German botanist. One of the first to perform experiments in heredity, he demonstrated sexuality in plants by identifying and defining the male and female reproductive parts of the plant and by describing their function in fertilization, showing that pollen is required for the process.

Learn more about Camerarius, Rudolph (Jacob) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

orig. Johann Jakob Astor

(born July 17, 1763, Waldorf, Ger.—died March 29, 1848, New York, N.Y., U.S.) German-born U.S. fur magnate and financier. After emigrating from Germany at age17, he opened a fur-goods shop in New York circa 1786. By 1800 he was a leader in the fur trade, and he established the American Fur Co. He controlled the fur trade with China (1800–17) and in the Mississippi and Missouri valleys (in the 1820s) before selling his interests in 1834. His investment in New York City real estate became the foundation of the family fortune. At his death, Astor was the wealthiest person in the U.S.; he willed $400,000 to found what became the New York Public Library. His son, William B. Astor (1792–1875), greatly expanded the family real-estate holdings, building more than 700 stores and dwellings in the city.

Learn more about Astor, John Jacob with a free trial on Britannica.com.