Oscar S. Straus Memorial

Oscar Solomon Straus was born into a Jewish family on December 23, 1850 in the town of Otterberg in what is now Germany. When he was a toddler, he and his family immigrated to the United States and settled in the tiny town of Talbotton in west-central Georgia. Following the conclusion of the Civil War, they left the South and relocated to New York City. There, Straus attended Columbia College, earning an undergraduate degree in 1871 and a law degree two years later. He then established a law firm and practiced for nearly a decade before retiring to join his father and two brothers at the import firm of L. Straus & Sons, which at the time was operating in the basement of a retail store owned by Rowland H. Macy. In the late 1880s, Straus’s brothers, Isidor and Nathan, purchased a percentage of R.H. Macy and Company. Within a decade, they had assumed complete control of the company. Under their leadership, R.H. Macy and Company moved its store from Lower Manhattan to Herald Square in Midtown and began opening branch stores across the country. The company’s Herald Square store eventually grew into the largest department store in the world. (Isidor Straus later died during the sinking of the RMS Titanic in April 1912.)

Before his brothers built a retail empire, Oscar Straus left the family business and turned his attention to politics. After his involvement in a New York City mayoral race, he supported New York governor Grover Cleveland in his bid for the White House in 1884. Cleveland ultimately won, and later appointed Straus U.S. minister to the Ottoman Empire. He served in the role from 1887 to 1889. Roughly a decade later, President William McKinley appointed Straus to the same position. Once again, he held the position for two years. After becoming friends with President Theodore Roosevelt, Roosevelt appointed Straus a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague in the Netherlands. He served in the role until Roosevelt nominated him to be U.S. secretary of commerce and labor in 1906. Consequently, Straus became the first Jewish Cabinet member in American history. He held the position until Roosevelt’s tenure in the White House came to an end in early 1909. Straus, however, was not without work for long. Later that same year, the new President of the United States, William Howard Taft, appointed him U.S. ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. After resigning from the post in 1910, Straus returned to the United States. Two years later, he ran unsuccessfully for governor of New York. During the Great War, Straus worked with former President Taft on the League to Enforce Peace, an organization that called for the creation of an international peacekeeping body to prevent future wars. He died in New York City on May 3, 1926 at the age of seventy-five. 

Shortly after Straus’s death, Congress authorized the construction of a memorial in honor of him in the nation’s capital. Subsequently, the federal government agreed to donate a site and pay for its future maintenance. Family, friends, and admirers of Straus then formed a committee to raise funds for the memorial’s construction. The Great Depression and the Second World War, however, hampered their fundraising efforts and delayed the project for years, but in 1947 the memorial was finally completed. Dedicated by President Harry Truman in the Federal Triangle on October 26, 1947, the memorial consists of a large fountain with concentric basins flanked by two bronze allegorical groups on pedestals. Designed by German-American sculptor Adolph Alexander Weinman, the sculptures represent “Justice” and “Reason.” Today, the memorial sits in front of the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center.

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"Oscar Solomon Straus." jewishvirtuallibrary.org. American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise. Web. 22 April 2021 <https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/oscar-solomon-straus>.

"Oscar S. Straus (1906-1909)." millercenter.org. University of Virginia. Web. 22 April 2021 <https://millercenter.org/president/roosevelt/essays/straus-1906-secretary-of-commerce-and-labor>.

"Rededication Ceremony Oscar S. Straus Memorial October 26, 1998." wholedamfam (Straus Historical Society, Inc.) 7, no. 1 (February 1999): 1-12. Web. 22 April 2021 <https://web.archive.org/web/20110717122347/http://www.straushistoricalsociety.org/uploads/1166571460nwsltr299.pdf>.