Lyman Bloomingdale

Lyman Gustave Bloomingdale (February 11, 1841 – October 13, 1905) was an American businessman and philanthropist best known as the co-founder, alongside his brother Joseph B. Bloomingdale, of the upscale department store chain Bloomingdale's in New York City.

Born in New York City to Bavarian Jewish immigrants Benjamin Bloomingdale and Hannah Weil, Lyman Bloomingdale was educated in the city's public schools and at Smith's Collegiate Institute. During the American Civil War, he served as a non-commissioned officer in the Kansas Volunteers. In April 1872, the Bloomingdale brothers opened their first store at 938 Third Avenue in Manhattan as a ladies' notions shop specializing in hoop skirts, a popular 19th-century fashion item, before expanding it into the East Side Bazaar to offer a wider array of European fashions and establishing the foundation for a full department store. The business relocated to a larger site at 59th Street and Third Avenue in 1886, where it grew into a prominent retail destination, and in 1898, Bloomingdale's introduced the first retail escalators in the United States, enhancing customer accessibility and experience.

Lyman Gustave Bloomingdale was born on February 11, 1841, in New York City to Benjamin Bloomingdale, a Bavarian-born Jewish immigrant, and his wife Hannah Weil, also a German Jewish immigrant.

The Bloomingdales were part of the wave of German Jewish immigrants settling in New York during the mid-19th century. Benjamin initially worked as a peddler after immigration, later transitioning to the ladies' clothing trade, including a hoop-skirt business on Chambers Street by the 1860s; the family resided in New York City, with records showing them in Manhattan by the time of Lyman's birth and in Albany briefly around 1850 before returning.

Bloomingdale received his early education in the public schools of New York City. His family's Jewish immigrant background from Bavaria served as a key motivation for prioritizing education as a pathway to social mobility and economic opportunity in America.