biography
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1796–1876)
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| biography:
| Financier and philanthropist, born in Fredericksburg, Pennsylvania, USA. A piano-maker by training, he spent many years in South America (1820–37) and then moved to San Francisco. He made a fortune in the real-estate boom there and gave much of his fortune to public purposes. Most notably he left $700 000 to produce the most powerful telescope made to that date, and to house it he founded the Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton in Santa Clara, CA. |
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