Warburg, Frieda Schiff, 1876-1958

Frieda Schiff Warburg was born on February 3, 1876, in New York City, New York. A member of New York City's German Jewish elite, her father was a preeminent Jewish communal leader and head of the banking firm Kuhn, Loeb & Co., and her maternal grandfather was a founder of the banking firm. She had an opulent private education, although her formal education ended after she graduated from the Brearley School.

Warburg was a philanthropist and patron of the arts. She was active in the Young Women's Hebrew Association, Hadassah, Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies of New York City, the Joint Distribution Committee, the Welfare Council of New York City, the Visiting Nurse Service of New York, the Jewish Theological Seminary of America to commemorate her father's 90th birthday anniversary in 1937.

She became a director of the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1938 as the first woman director of the Seminary. In 1944, she donated her husband's mansion on Fifth Avenue to the Seminary. In 1947, they opened the mansion as the Jewish Museum.

Warburg gifted paintings and etchings to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Vassar College, the Library of Congress, the National Gallery of Art, the New York Public Library, the Morgan Library, the Mannes College of Music, the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Science, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Springfield Museum of Fine Arts, Princeton University, New York University, and the Harvard Art Museums.

Warburg died at her home at Meadow Farm on her former estate in Woodlands in White Plains on September 14, 1958.