Nathan Straus – 1848-1931

With his brother Isidor, Straus co-owned the great R. H. Macy department store in New York City from 1896. During the 1890s, Straus also began his philanthropic work, giving away food and coal to poor New Yorkers and supplying pasteurized milk to children in 36 American cities. By 1920, he had founded nearly 300 milk-distribution depots in the United States and abroad. In 1909, Straus also financed the first tuberculosis “preventorium” for children in Lakewood, New Jersey.