Quincy Adams Shaw
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Quincy Adams Shaw | |
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| Born | February 8, 1825 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died | June 12, 1908 (aged 83) Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Resting place | Forest Hills Cemetery, Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 5, including Robert Gould Shaw II |
| Signature | |
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Quincy Adams Shaw (February 8, 1825 – June 12, 1908) was a Boston Brahmin investor and business magnate who was the first president of Calumet and Hecla Mining Company.
Shaw came from a famous and moneyed Boston family. With a net worth of $1,000,000 in 1846 (equivalent to $34,996,000 in 2024), Shaw's father, Robert Gould Shaw (1776–1853), was one of the wealthiest men in Boston.[2] His mother was Elizabeth Willard Parkman (March 31, 1785 – April 14, 1853), whose father Samuel Parkman (August 22, 1751 – June 11, 1824) was the original source of capital upon which her husband built one of the wealthiest and largest business enterprises in Boston at that time.[2] George Parkman (February 19, 1790 – November 23, 1849), a wealthy Boston physician who was murdered in 1849 in a gruesome and highly publicized case, was Elizabeth's brother.
Shaw was good friends with his cousin, American historian Francis Parkman Junior (September 16, 1823 – November 8, 1893), and the pair travelled together to the American West after graduating from Harvard University in 1845. Parkman's 1849 book, The Oregon Trail: Sketches of Prairie and Rocky-Mountain Life, is dedicated to Shaw.[1][3]
Shaw's older brother Francis George Shaw (October 23, 1809 – November 7, 1882) was an outspoken advocate of the abolition of slavery.[4] Shaw's nephew, son of Francis George, was Robert Gould Shaw (October 10, 1837 – July 18, 1863).[4][5] The latter was a colonel in the Volunteer Army of the United States during the American Civil War, and commander of the all-black 54th Regiment. Colonel Robert Gould Shaw was killed in action during the Second Battle of Fort Wagner in 1863.[4]
Later life
On November 30, 1860, Shaw married Pauline Agassiz (February 6, 1841 – February 10, 1917), daughter of Louis Agassiz and the step daughter of Elizabeth Cabot Cary. They had five children: Pauline, Marian, Louis Agassiz Shaw, Sr. (September 18, 1861 – July 2, 1891), Quincy Adams Shaw, Jr. (July 30, 1869 – May 8, 1960), and Robert Gould Shaw II (1873–1930).[1]
Shaw's grandson, Louis Agassiz Shaw, Jr., is credited along with Philip Drinker for inventing the Drinker respirator, the first widely used iron lung.[6][7][8][9]
