John Lowell Gardner

John Lowell "Jack" Gardner Jr. (November 26, 1837 – December 10, 1898) was an American businessman, art collector, and philanthropist. He and his wife, Isabella Stewart Gardner, were patrons of the arts whose collection is now housed in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Background Gardner's mother, Catherine Endicott Peabody (1808–1883), of Brookline, Massachusetts, was the daughter of the Salem shipowner, Joseph Peabody (1757–1844), who made a fortune importing pepper from Sumatra and was one of the wealthiest men in the United States at the time of his death in 1844. Gardner's paternal grandfather, Samuel Pickering Gardner (1768–1843), descended from Thomas Gardner and from the father of Timothy Pickering. Through his paternal grandmother, Rebecca Russell Lowell, he descended from Percival Lowell who had arrived at Cape Ann in 1639. After spending time at Harvard, Gardner joined his father's East Indies trading business.