Crawford, John M.,

John M. Crawford Jr., a prominent collector of Oriental art and a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, was born in Parkersburg, West Virginia. He was the son of a manufacturer of oil-drilling equipment. Mr. Crawford graduated from Brown University in 1937. In 1941, Mr. Crawford went into publishing in Manhattan and began collecting books. He began collecting art in 1946. In 1962, when the Morgan Library exhibited his collection, Mr. Crawford noted that he was then the only such collector of calligraphy.

Mr. Crawford also collected fine books, including medieval manuscripts and bindings done by William Morris, the leader of the English crafts movement of the 19th century. In 1975, Mr. Crawford gave his Morris collection to the Morgan Library.

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