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Herbert H. Lehman

American politician (1878–1963)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 7, 2026
Entity authorityQ879261 ↗
Source-derived summary

Herbert Henry Lehman ( LEE-mən; March 28, 1878 – December 5, 1963) was an American financier and Democratic politician who served as the 45th governor of New York from 1933 to 1942 and represented New York in the United States Senate from 1949 until 1957.

Early life and career

Lehman was born to a Reform Jewish family in Manhattan, New York City, the son of Babetta (née Newgass) and German-born immigrant Mayer Lehman, one of the three brothers (along with Henry and Emanuel Lehman) who co-founded the Lehman Brothers financial services firm. His brother was New York Court of Appeals judge Irving Lehman. His father arrived from Rimpar, Germany, in 1848, settling in Montgomery, Alabama, where he engaged in the slave-era cotton business. As cotton was the most important crop of the Southern United States and global demand led to profitable business, the Lehman brothers became cotton factors, accepting cotton bales from customers as payment for their merchandise. Cotton trading eventually became the main thrust of their business. In 1867, Mayer and Emanuel Lehman moved the company's headquarters to New York City, and helped found the New York Cotton Exchange.

Herbert Lehman attended The Sachs School, founded by Julius Sachs. In 1895, he graduated from Sachs Collegiate Institute in New York City, and in 1899, he graduated with a B.A. from Williams College. After college, Lehman worked in textile manufacturing, eventually becoming vice-president and treasurer of the J. Spencer Turner Company in Brooklyn.

Editorial summary

“Herbert H. Lehman” enters the record as american politician (1878–1963). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Herbert, Lehman and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1878, 1963, 1933, 1942—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1878-03-28. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Herbert, Lehman and American.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Herbert H. Lehman” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Herbert, Lehman and American provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q879261. VIAF identifies the subject as 67228196. The Library of Congress control number is n86111057. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1878, 1963, 1933 and 1942.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Herbert H. Lehman”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Herbert H. Lehman primary sources, Herbert H. Lehman archive and Herbert research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Herbert H. Lehman”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Herbert H. Lehman” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.