Henry S. Harper

Henry Sleeper Harper (11 March 1864 – 1 March 1944) was an American businessman. He was an incorporator of Harper & Brothers when the firm became a corporation in 1896. Harper is remembered as a passenger on the when it sank on April 15, 1912, particularly because his Pekingese called Sun Yat-sen was one of three dogs to survive the sinking of the Titanic, and also for his work to save the Adirondack forests from logging. Early life and education The son of Joseph Wesley Harper, Jr. (1839–1896) and Abigail Payson Sleeper (1829–1866), Henry graduated from Columbia University in 1888. Career Henry was a director of the Harper & Brothers Publishing House. Henry's grandfather, Joseph Wesley Harper, had founded the firm Harper & Brothers, which gave way in 1900 to the publishing house. Personal life He was married to Myra Raymond Haxtun on February 28, 1889. In 1911, he purchased a home at 133 E. 21st St., overlooking Gramercy Park from the north. After Myra’s death on November 27, 1923, he was remarried to Anne Waterman Hopson (1884–1976), a niece of his first wife, and they had a son, Henry Sleeper Harper, Jr. In 1926 he moved to 38th and Lexington Avenue into a mansion that exists today.