EDGAR BANCROFT WHITCOMB

(1866- 19)

Married to Anna Virginia Scripps , second daughter of James E. Scripps.
Edgar’s first business career was working in the offices of The Detroit and Cleveland Navigation Company. Following his marriage to Anna Scripps, Edgar was James Scripps’s Business Manager of the Detroit Tribune from 1891-1893. He was succeeded by Ralph H. Booth in 1893. Thereafter, in addition to being a Vice President for George Booth’s Grand Rapids Press and Bay City Times, from 1893 on Edgar was President of the James E. Scripps Corporation (probably the Scripps family’s extensive Detroit real estate holdings which had once been managed by George Scripps( James’s younger brother) and Scripps Sweeney, a cousin.) Edgar also on his own account had extensive Detroit area real estate holdings.

Edgar Whitcomb held a major shareholder interest for his wife, Anna Scripps, in the Evening News and was a member of its Board of Directors.

Edgar Whitcomb was appointed President of the Detroit Arts Commission following the death of Edsel Ford. In this capacity he continued the family/clan leadership of the DIA which James E. Scripps began in the 1880’s, George Booth followed upon the death of James Scripps in 1906, and Ralph Booth then followed in 1916 -1930). This Scripps-Booth Clan control of the DIA was only broken by Edsel Ford’s appointment.

Note: The President of the Detroit Arts Commission after Edgar Whitcomb was Lillian Henkel Haass, daughter of Ralph Booth’s friend and fellow Arts Commissioner Julius Haass. Thereafter, the Presidency of the Arts Commission returned to the Ford/Hudson Clan, first to Mrs. Eleanor Ford, then to her cousin Joseph Hudson III with Eleanor Ford’s son-in-law Walter Brush Ford (married to Edsel and Eleanor Ford’s daughter Josephine Ford) becoming President of the Founder Society od the DIA, it’s fund raising and benefactor support group.
NOTE: the successor chief benefactor and person in charge of the DIA following the Ford/Hudson Clan was Richard Manoogian, with support from A. Alfred Taubman.

Edgar and Anna Whitcomb were major donors to the DIA, particularly in the field of French Art. Because of his contributions to the French Collection at the DIA, Edgar was awarded and inducted into The French Legion of Honor.
NOTE: The Whitcombs were tutored in French art by René Gimpel. They are frequently mentioned in Gimpel’s memoir as invitees to Gimpel small select group of dinner companions during his frequent visit to Detroit in the 1920’s.