Field, William Bradhurst Osgood, 1870-1949

William Bradhurst Osgood Field (1870-1949) was a landowner, collector and philanthropist from a New York family. He was the son of William Hazard Field and Augusta Currie Bradhurst Field, and the nephew of Osgood Field, a society figure in London and Rome. William's sister, Mary Pearsall Field, was also a socialite.In 1902 he married Lila Vanderbilt Sloane Field, the great-granddaughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt. They divided their time between their three family properties, 645 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, High Lawn in Lenox and Westfield in Mohegan Lake. They had four children: William Osgood Field, who became a respected glaciologist, Frederick Vanderbilt Field, who became a communist and writer on Asia's economy, Marjorie Lila who turned High Lawn estate into a top dairy farm with her husband H. George Wilde, and Mary Augusta. The death of William's first wife in 1934 led to subsequent marriages to Erika Segnitz in 1936 (divorced in 1940) and Mary Hemenway in 1944.

Field graduated from the Stevens Institute of Technology in 1894 with a degree in mechanical engineering. He later took courses in biology and zoology at Columbia University. He initially worked as a member of the engineer corps of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad. He was a member of many commercial and charitable organisations in New York and sat on numerous boards. Between 1903 and 1909 he was vice-president of M. W. Kellogg Company. He was also appointed to the Board of Managers for the Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents in New York in 1907.Field travelled extensively throughout his life and formed a collections of prints, stamps, coins, crucifixes and books. He was a member of the Grolier Club from 1904, serving as president from 1925-1928. In 1920 loans from his print collection were made to an exhibition celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. In 1942 he bequeathed his books and Edward Lear drawings to the Harvard College Library.