Burke, Edmund Stevenson, Jr. (1879-1962)

Person

Staff Only

Dates

Existence: 1879 - 1962

Biography

Edmund S. Burke Jr., wealthy banker and sportsman, was born in Cleveland. He graduated from Princeton in 1900 and studied law for a short time before joining the Corrigan-McKinney Steel Company, where his grandfather, Stevenson Burke, was a major stockholder. Burke served as the director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland during the Depression, from 1933-1938 (from 1934-1936, he was acting chairman of the Board of Directors for the bank). He was a member of the Securities and Exchange Commission from 1941-1943, having served as director of the S.E.C.’s reorganization division.

In 1914 the CMA elected Burke a member of its Advisory Council and Accessions Committee shortly after the museum’s incorporation. His extensive world travels, however, precluded his full participation. Burke was a collector of Barbizon paintings, including works by Millet and Corot. By 1919 many of these were sold at auction; others were sold after his death. Edmund and Josephine Burke donated a small group of art objects from their collection to the CMA in 1954. Those that remain in the CMA collection are five Chinese porcelain vases from the Kangxi period.

A skilled yachtsman, Burke owned a 140-foot-long yacht built in 1926. He raised horses on his estate, and his trotters and pacers won the local harness racing challenge cup in 1907- 1908, and 1909. Burke, along with Corliss Sullivan, introduced the game of polo to Cleveland in 1911, providing a polo field on his property, assembling a team for the matches, and importing an expert to teach the game. In 1938 he sold his forty-two-room mansion in what is now University Circle to the Cleveland Music School Settlement.

Burke married Josephine Brainard Chisholm in 1904. They had four children, Stevenson, Josephine, Parthenia, and Kathleen. He died at his home in Cleveland Heights and was buried in Lake View Cemetery.

Sources

“Edmund S. Burke Jr. Dies at 83; Federal Reserve Aide in 1930’s,” New York Times, April 8, 1962, accessed 4/24/2025.

“Burke, Edmund Stevenson Jr.,” Encyclopedia of Cleveland History, Case Western Reserve University, accessed 4/23/2025.

210. Edmund Stevenson Burke Jr., 1914-1923, Frederick Allen Whiting Records, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.

Burke, Edmund Stevenson, 1942-1955, William Mathewson Milliken Records, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.

-Biography by Anne Cuyler Salsich, April 2025

Occupations

Places

Ohio--Cleveland (Place of Birth)

Found in 2 Collections and/or Records:

210. Edmund Stevenson Burke, Jr., 1914-1923

File — Box: 20, Folder: 18

Scope and Contents note From the Series: This is the largest series of records documenting Whiting's tenure as director of The Cleveland Museum of Art. Most of the series dates from 1913 to 1930, the years that Whiting was director, although a small percentage predates his arrival in Cleveland (see, for example, Henry Kent's correspondence with the building committee from 1912-1913, located in box 1). These records reflect a time when museum functions and departments were not yet fully delineated. Together, they...

Dates: 1914-1923

Found in: Cleveland Museum of Art Archives / 1111.071, Frederic Allen Whiting records / Numbered Administrative Correspondence

Burke, Edmund Stevenson, 1942-1955

File — Box: 7, Folder: 5

Scope and Contents note From the Series: This is the central correspondence file from Milliken's tenure as director, dating from 1930-1958. When Milliken became director, he apparently continued Whiting's numerical filing scheme for awhile, but at some point he (or someone on his support staff) decided to establish a new central file of director's correspondence in an alphabetical sequence by correspondent names and subject terms. Materials in each file are usually arranged chronologically, although general files, such as those...

Dates: 1942-1955

Found in: Cleveland Museum of Art Archives / 1111.072, William Mathewson Milliken records / Alphabetical Administrative Correspondence