The immigrant family whose mining empire became a legacy of museums, foundations, and the arts.
Meyer Guggenheim and his sons built one of the world's largest mining and smelting empires in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, controlling copper, silver, and other metals across the Americas.
The family redirected its wealth into philanthropy and the arts — founding the Guggenheim museums, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (Guggenheim Fellowships), and pioneering aviation and science funding.
The Guggenheim name is now known worldwide for art and ideas — the spiraling Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, and the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowships.
Their aviation funding helped launch modern flight research.
The Guggenheim family is based in New York. A great American fortune turned into world-famous cultural institutions
1880s.
Meyer Guggenheim — patriarch; built the mining fortune
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