Portrait of Daniel Guggenheim

People/magnate, financier

Daniel Guggenheim

Daniel Guggenheim (1856–1930), magnate, financier, from United States. Linked to silver, copper, tin.

The lucky break

Joined the family firm in 1884 and became its chief negotiator. He took a leading part in the family takeover of American Smelting and Refining and oversaw ventures including copper in Alaska and Chile and tin in Bolivia.1,2,3,4

The downfall

Critics accused the family of profiteering in the First World War, of harsh treatment of workers including strikebreaking, and of exploiting Alaskan land despite opposition from Gifford Pinchot. A 1920s ASARCO dispute weakened the family.1,2,3,4

Legacy

Retired in 1923 and founded the Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Foundation in 1924. His aeronautics fund supported Robert Goddard's rocket work.1,2,3,4

Story cards

Drag to turn the globe

Where next

People

FamilySimon GuggenheimTwo brothers, one smelting empire.2FinancedDaniel C. JacklingHis family company backed the open pit idea at Bingham.5FamilyMeyer GuggenheimFather of eight sons, several of whom took the smelting empire global.2

Mines

OwnedChuquicamataThe Chile Exploration Company, owned by his family, began Chuquicamata in 1915.6FinancedKennecott MinesGuggenheim money opened Alaska's copper and the Kennecott mine.1

Sources

  1. Guggenheim, Daniel Encyclopedia.com (reprinting a publisher's reference work)
  2. Guggenheim family Encyclopedia.com (reprinting a publisher's reference work)
  3. Wikidata item Q968227
  4. File pages and licence metadata for portraits (via the Commons imageinfo/extmetadata API) Wikimedia Commons
  5. Hall of Fame: Daniel Jackling Mining Foundation of the Southwest
  6. data/minerals/operations.csv Prospector Trails (internal)

Pictures on this page: Daniel Guggenheim.jpg, Bain News Service, New York. (Public domain); Simon Guggenheim cph.3a02257.jpg, Unknown author (Public domain); Meyer Guggenheim.jpg, not recorded on the file page (Public domain).

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

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Pictures: Falu gruva, Lundberg, Bengt A / Europeana (CC0 1.0); Kopermijn te Kolwezi in de provincie Shaba (Katanka), Mieremet, Rob / Anefo / Europeana (Public Domain Mark 1.0); South Africa: a crowd of people gathered outside The Goldfields offices in Johannesburg. 1896., Unknown (Wellcome Collection) (Public Domain Mark 1.0); Potosi, Bolivia, NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Space Systems, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (Public domain (NASA media, no copyright)).