Edward Dean Adams


Edward Dean Adams was an American businessman, banker, power broker and numismatist. He was the president of Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power and Manufacturing Company which built the first hydroelectric power plants in Niagara Falls, New York. The Adams Power Plant Transformer House is named after him. He was "conspicuously successful in corporate reorganizations".
Adams appeared on the cover of TIME Magazine on May 27, 1929.
He also had wide cultural interests, including numismatics.

Association with the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Adams was a Trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art for almost 40 years, and served in various capacities. He was a Member and treasurer of the special committee for the acquisition of casts and reproductions; Chairman of the Finance Committee, and a member of various committees, including the Executive Committee, the Building Committee, the Committee on Educational Work, the Committee on Prints, and the Library Committee.
He also made many gifts to the Museum, including a collection of reproductions of the more noteworthy of the bronzes from Herculaneum, in the National Museum at Naples; a collection of photographs of Renaissance architecture and ornament, and of Renaissance and baroque sculpture, medals and many other pieces. He was elected a Benefactor of the Museum in 1909.

Numismatic interests

Adams was active in the American Numismatic Society, where he was a Council Member and on many committees involved in publishing the Society's medals. He donated Japanese medals to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1906.