History: The Beginning Of The 20th Century In Color Photographs By Albert Kahn

Albert Kahn was a banker and French philanthropist. He was born Abraham Kahn at Marmoutier, Bas-Rhin, France on 3 March 1860, into a Jewish family, one of 5 children of his parents, Louis and Babette Kahn. He died at Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine, France on 14 November 1940, In 1879 Kahn became a bank clerk in Paris, but studied for a degree in the evenings. His tutor was Henri Bergson, who remained his friend all his life. He graduated in 1881 and continued to mix in intellectual circles, making friends with Auguste Rodin and Mathurin Méheut. In 1892 Kahn became a principal associate of the Goudchaux Bank, which was regarded as one of most important financial houses of Europe. In 1893 Kahn acquired a large property in Boulogne-Billancourt, where he established a unique garden containing a variety of garden styles including English, Japanese, a rose garden and a conifer wood. This became a meeting place for French and European intelligentsia until the 1930s when due to the Wall Street Crash of 1929, Kahn became bankrupt. At that time the garden was turned into a public park in which Kahn would still take walks. Kahn died during the Nazi occupation of France. Since 1986 the photographs have been collected into a museum at 14, Rue du Port, Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris, at the site of his garden. It is now a French national museum and includes four hectares of gardens, as well as the museum which houses his historic photographs and film.