Edward Dean Adams

Edward Dean Adams (April 9, 1846 – May 20, 1931) was an American businessman, banker, philanthropist, 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".

He also had wide cultural interests, including numismatics, and he played a leading role at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Early life and education Edward Dean Adams was born in Boston, Massachusetts on April 9, 1846 to businessman Adoniram Judson Adams and Harriet Lincoln (née Norton) Adams. They were distantly related to the Adams political family, sharing a common ancestor in England named Henry Adams. From 1870 to 1878, he was a partner in the Boston firm of Richardson, Hill & Co. He joined Winslow, Lanier & Co. in 1878. In 1893, he became the American representative of Deutsche Bank and served in that role until the outbreak of World War I in 1914.

Personal life Adams married Frances Amelia Gutterson of Boston in October 1872. They had five children, Ruth, Ralph, Ernest (died 1904), Pierpont, and Kempton. He donated Japanese medals to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1906. Adams privately commissioned Marschall to create the 1925 Truth Seeker medal.