Morgan Ott Heiskell 1881-1967

Morgan Ott Heiskell was born in Wheeling on 2 July 1881, the son of William Paxton Heiskell and Kate Burt Heiskell. On 4 November 1908, he married Ann Moore Hubbard (Vassar, class of 1907, also of Wheeling). Her wealthy father ran the Wheeling Steel and Iron Company.

c.r. = address while in college; p.r. = present residence. Source: General catalogue of the officers and graduates of Vassar College v.4 1861-1910 (1910)

As the above entry shows, by 1910, Morgan Heiskell and his wife were living in Paris, and they had a daughter (Diana Heiskell). Morgan and his wife eventually settled on the Isle of Capri, Italy, where they joined an exclusive community of expatriate artists and writers. Morgan was a photographer and indulged in impressionist painting. His published works are:

Roman memories in the landscape seen from Capri narrated by Thomas Spencer Jerome, and illustrated by Morgan Heiskell. London, 1914.

Capri, the Island Retreat of Roman Emperors (a photographic essay of 12 photos) National Geographic Magazine, June 1922.

A collection of Morgan's photographs of Capri are housed in the Palazzo Farace (Capri).

"Feeding chickens while naked: a perfectly natural hobby" by Morgan Heiskell from the book, Photograms of the year, 1916.

The Heiskells lived in grand style in the Moorish Villa Discopoli, the former residence of the writer, Rainer Maria Rilke, the biologist Jacob von Uexkull, and Queen Margherita of Savoy. As a young girl, Diana Heiskell became the best friend of Letizia Cerio, daughter of the polymath, Edwin Cerio, who grew up to be a designer, artist and writer in her own right and lived at the nearby Palazzo Cerio. During this period Morgan and Ann had a son, Andrew Heiskell, who was born in Naples on 13 September 1915. When Andrew was interviewed for a Columbia University oral history project he stated that his parents had a "fancy marriage in Wheeling, West Virginia, and upon being duly wed, they immediately took off for Capri and really never came back. That's quite a big jump if you think of it. This must have been around 1907, 1908. They first rented and then I guess they bought a house, Villa Discopoli, a lovely house, and they lived there from 1908 till pretty much the end of the decade of the 1910s, close to 1920." The marriage ended badly, as Andrew's obituary states: "By the time he was 6, his parents had separated. At that point, his mother led him and his sister, Diana, who was five years older, on a nomadic life, moving from hotel to hotel in Italy, France, Austria, Germany and Switzerland. He wrote that neither he nor his sister ever learned the reason for the breakup of their parents' marriage. He did not see or hear from his father for 35 years until he looked him up in a Paris telephone directory and called him." Perhaps the marital breakdown had something to do with Ann Heiskell's affair with Sir Compton Mackenzie, the British author. 1

Villa Discopoli, Isle of Capri

Official congressional directory for the use of the united states congress By Francis G. Matson, (1919:383) shows 1st Lieutenant Morgan Heiskell, assistant military attaché under the heading of 'embassies and legations of the United States' for Italy.
Morgan had enlisted in the US Army on 8 January 1903 while in Seattle, Washington. He was 21, and working as a clerk. He was assigned to the 17th Infantry. He also registered for the draft during World War II.



From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 20 April 1936 p. 10.

His obituary appeared in the New York TImes (Thursday, 20 April 1967, p. 43). "Morgan Heiskell, 86, Dies; Father of Time Chairman". He died in Switzerland on 19 April 1967.2 The Social Security Death Index gives his last residence as (U.S. Consulate) Moroni, Comoros, an island off the northwestern coast of Madagascar.

Ann Hubbard Heiskell, born 18 September 1884 died in March 1976 at Marlboro, Windham, Vermont (while staying with her daughter, Diana).

Morgan Heiskell's Travel

28 September 1899 Morgan, aged 17, applied for a passport at the US Embassy in Berlin, Germany. He left the US on 15 July 1899 with the intention of studying in Berlin for a year. 6

3 Apr 1915 Morgan applied for a passport at the American Consul in Naples, Italy. He and his wife were living in Capri at the time. The application states that he left the US on 6 September 1911, and that he was an artist.5

Ann Heiskell applied for a passport for herself and her two children, Diana and Andrew, on 10 September 1921, with the intention of joining her husband in Rome, Italy. They were scheduled to travel on board the SS Dante Aligheri on 28 Sept 1921. 5

Signature in 1915. Some Morgan Heiskell papers are in the library of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

1 D.H. Lawrence: triumph to exile, 1912-1922 by Mark Kinkead-Weekes. Cambridge, 1996:550.
2 Reports of Deaths of American Citizens Abroad, 1960, 1963-1974
3 New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957. The alien wife is Ilse Heiskell, aged 37, a German national, born in Berlin. Her sister was Cilly Eisner, living at 22 Ave. Elenbusch, Berlin. Ilse's brother-in-law, Denny Eisner, was a German Jewish banker, who came to the US on 23 June 1941. He was sponsored by Morgan. Ilse Heiskell, formerly Ilse Polahne, was born on 4 Feb 1904, and petitioned for naturalization on 2 May 1945. She married Morgan on 16 June 1932 in Berlin. (Selected U.S. Naturalization Records - Original Documents, 1790-1974 (World Archives Project).
4 UK Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960
5 Passport Applications, January 2, 1906 - March 31, 1925
6 Emergency Passport Applications (Passports Issued Abroad), 1877-1907
7 Morgan was Vice-President of the Commercial Cable Company, and Executive Representative in Europe for the company (Americans in France: a directory, 1926). He wrote The Commercial Cable Company in France in the journal, International communications review, 1929.