Thomas E. Wilson

Thomas Edward Wilson was born on July 22, 1868 in London, Ontario, Canada to Moses Wilson and Mary Ann Higgins. He was one of eight children. The family immigrated to the United States when Thomas was nine years old, settling in Chicago. Following high school, Thomas went to work as a clerk for Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railway. In 1887 he took a job with meat packinghouse Morris & Company, and was promoted to Vice-President of the company in 1906 and then President in 1913. During this time, he married Elizabeth Lavinia Foss, and together they had two children, Helen Elizabeth Wilson (b. 1900), and Edward Foss Wilson (b. 1905).

On March 22, 1916, Thomas was named President of the meat packing firm Sulzberger & Sons Co. The company was renamed Wilson & Co. on July 21, 1916.

Thomas Edward Wilson held numerous industry leadership roles throughout his lifetime. He helped organize the American Meat Institute, and served as its President in 1919. He served on the Board of Directors of the International Livestock Exposition, the Oklahoma National Stock Yards, the St. Louis National Stock Yards, the Livestock National Bank of Chicago, the Chicago River and Indiana Railway, the Illinois Central Railroad, the Sherwin-Williams Company, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., the First National Bank of Chicago, the Guaranty Trust Co. of New York, the National Association of Manufacturers, and the United States Chamber of Commerce. He chaired the National Livestock and Meat Board from 1935 to 1939.

Additionally, Thomas Edward Wilson helped found the National Committee on Boys and Girls Club Work (now the National 4-H Service Committee), and served as its chairman from 1924 to 1958.

Thomas Edward Wilson was the recipient of several service awards including The Silver Buffalo from the Boy Scouts of America in 1939, the Rosenberger Medal from the University of Chicago in 1940, the Chicago Merit Award, National from the Rotary Club of Chicago in 1945, an honorary LL.D. from the University of Western Ontario in 1945, the Medal for Merit from President Harry Truman in 1946 for his work to organize the nation's fat salvage campaign following the attack on Pearl Harbor, and an honorary LL.D. from Coe College in 1951.

Thomas Edward Wilson died on August 4, 1958.

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Black-and-white formal photographic portrait of Thomas E. Wilson. Thomas is a middle-aged white man, is wearing a suit and tie, has short white hair, and is looking directly into the camera. The portrait is cropped from the shoulders up.
Formal photographic portrait of Thomas E. Wilson, circa 1930s

Thomas E. Wilson Family Collection, Box 7, Folder 4, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

Photograph by Blank and Stoller, Inc., New York.
Black-and-white formal photograph of children seated and standing on front exterior steps of a brick building. Three adult women stand in the back row at the top of the stairs. The children are white boys and girls, approximately age four. Thomas E. Wilson stands in the back row, third from the right. He has a serious expression and is wearing a dark double-breasted coat with a darker collar.
School class photo including young Thomas E. Wilson, circa 1872.

Thomas E. Wilson Family Collection, Box 7, Folder 3, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

Likely taken in London, Ontario, Canada. Thomas E. Wilson pictured standing in back row, third from right.
Black-and-white tintype formal photograph of Thomas E. Wilson seated next to a standing man. Thomas is a white man in his 20s or 30s, and is wearing a light-colored suit with a vest and wide tie. He is seated on a chair draped in an animal skin. To his left, another man is posed standing with his arm resting on the back of Thomas' chair. The standing man is a white man with a full dark beard, wearing a dark suit.
Tintype photograph of Thomas E. Wilson as young man, circa 1890s

Thomas E. Wilson Family Collection, Box 2, Folder 19, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

Thomas E. Wilson is seated on the left.
Page 1 of newsletter article. Title is "A Great Man Rises to a Great Occasion: Thomas E. Wilson Reorganizes a Big Industry." Features a black-and-white photograph of Thomas E. Wilson from the shoulders up. Thomas E. Wilson is a young white man with dark hair and is shown wearing a white collared shirt and dark suit jacket.
"A Great Man Rises to a Great Occasion," South Shore Country Club, 1916, pg. 1

Thomas E. Wilson Family Collection, Box 33, Folder 3, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

A South Shore Country Club newsletter article about Thomas E. Wilson's rebranding of Sulzberger & Sons Company as Wilson & Co.
Page 2 of newsletter article.
"A Great Man Rises to a Great Occasion," South Shore Country Club, 1916, pg. 2

Thomas E. Wilson Family Collection, Box 33, Folder 3, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.
Black-and-white group photograph of seven white men standing outdoors in front of building.
Photograph of Thomas E. Wilson, Edward Foss Wilson, and others at Atlantic City Packers' convention, October 1928

Thomas E. Wilson Family Collection, Box 28, Folder 9, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

Photograph by Atlantic News Association. Thomas E. Wilson pictured third from right, and Edward Foss Wilson pictured second from right.
Black-and-white group photograph of nine older white men wearing tuxedos.
Thomas E. Wilson at American Meat Institute annual dinner, October 24, 1928, Astor Hotel, New York City.

Thomas E. Wilson Family Collection, Box 2, Folder 21, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

Wilson was President of the American Meat Institute and Chairman of the Institute Plan Commission. Left to right: Harvey Firestone, Julius Rosenwald (Sears, Roebuck, & Co.), Thomas Alva Edison, Sir Thomas Lipton, Charles Schwab, Henry Ford, Walter Chrysler, George Eastman, and Thomas E. Wilson.
Two internal pages of a program for 20th anniversary celebration of the 4-H Club's Thomas E. Wilson Day (1937). The article is a reflection on the last twenty years of the 4-H Club written by Thomas E. Wilson and features a black-and-white photographic portrait of Thomas E. Wilson, and a photo of Wilson standing with a bull.
4-H Club Annual Thomas E. Wilson Day 20th anniversary program, 1937, page 1.

Thomas E. Wilson Family Collection, Box 2, Folder 2, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.
Two internal pages of a program for the 20th anniversary celebration of the 4-H Club's Thomas E. Wilson Day (1937). The article is about Thomas E. Wilson Day and features a black-and-white illustration of Thomas E. Wilson seated at a dining table with a group of young boys and girls.
4-H Club Annual Thomas E. Wilson Day 20th anniversary program, page 2

Thomas E. Wilson Family Collection, Box 2, Folder 2, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.
Typescript citation signed by President Harry S. Truman, thanking Thomas E. Wilson for his leadership in the National Fat Salvage Program during World War II.
Original citation to accompany the award of the Medal for Merit to Thomas E. Wilson, 1946

Thomas E. Wilson Family Collection, Box 2, Folder 13, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.