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History of the Treasury
Secretaries of the Treasury
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Henry Morgenthau, Jr.
(1934 - 1945)
Having served as head of the Farm Credit Administration in 1933,
Henry Morgenthau (1891-1967) was appointed Secretary of the Treasury by
President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1934, continuing briefly under Harry
Truman. As Roosevelt's Secretary, Morgenthau was instrumental in setting
up the Works Progress Administration and the Public Works of Art Project
in the 1930's. To finance World War II,  Morgenthau initiated an elaborate system
of marketing war bonds. He arranged that the Federal Reserve would support
Treasury borrowing and would purchase bonds not bought by the public at
an agreed rate. The war bond program raised 49 billion dollars towards the
cost of the war.
Morgenthau made his most significant contribution as chairman of the
conference at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, in 1944. This conference,
the keystone of postwar international finance, established the International
Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development
(World Bank) and pegged all international currencies to the dollar, which
was in turn pegged to gold. Morgenthau resigned shortly after the accession
of Truman to the presidency.
About the Artist
Born in Richmond, Virginia in 1909, David Silvette received his first
artistic training from his father, Ellis M. Silvette, a portrait painter.
David later studied with Cecelia Beaux and Charles Hawthorne. This portrait
of Henry Morgenthau was painted in the dining room of Morgenthau's Hyde
Park house during the summer of 1936. Morgenthau and his advisors were
meeting at Hyde Park to discuss various candidates for the vacant position
of Assistant Secretary, most of whom were rejected for fear they would
take orders from Wall Street. During one of the portrait sittings, Morgenthau
asked David Silvette to make a change in the painting, to which Silvette
replied, "Mr. Secretary, I know what I am doing." One of Morgenthaus'
advisors, who had observed this exchange, suggested, "Why don't we
get that artist as Assistant Secretary, he won't take orders from anyone."
The portrait was so liked by Morgenthau that he was reluctant to give
it up to the Treasury Department. He kept it until 1945, when he retired
as Secretary.
Office of the Curator
All rights reserved. 2001
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