Henry Myer Phillips

Henry Myer Phillips (June 30, 1811 – August 28, 1884) was a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania and was Pennsylvania’s second Jewish congressman. He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he attended the local schools and pursued further studies at the Franklin Institute, receiving a practical and scientific education that complemented his later legal training. Raised in the city whose interests he would later represent in public life, he was part of Philadelphia’s growing Jewish community in the early nineteenth century.

After completing his schooling, Phillips studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1832. He commenced the practice of law in Philadelphia, establishing himself as a capable attorney in the city’s legal community. In addition to his private practice, he served as clerk of the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas, gaining experience in court administration and judicial procedure. This early legal and administrative work laid the foundation for his later public service and helped build his reputation in civic and professional circles.

Phillips’s political career advanced within the Democratic Party, and he was elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-fifth Congress, serving a single term in the U.S. House of Representatives. His service in Congress occurred during a significant and turbulent period in American history in the late 1850s, as sectional tensions over slavery and states’ rights were intensifying. As a member of the Democratic Party representing Pennsylvania, he contributed to the legislative process, participating in the democratic governance of the nation and representing the interests of his constituents. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1858, ending his brief tenure in the national legislature.

Following his congressional service, Phillips resumed the practice of law in Philadelphia while remaining active in party and public affairs. He served as a delegate to the 1860 Democratic National Convention, taking part in the fractious national deliberations that preceded the Civil War. Beyond partisan politics, he became deeply involved in the civic, cultural, and institutional life of Philadelphia. A committed Freemason, he served as grand master of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania from 1859 to 1860, reflecting his prominence in fraternal and community organizations.

Phillips’s later career was marked by extensive service on boards and commissions that shaped Philadelphia’s public and cultural landscape. He became a trustee of Jefferson Medical College in 1862, contributing to the governance of one of the city’s leading medical institutions. In 1867 he was appointed a member of the Board of Fairmount Park Commissioners, the body responsible for overseeing one of the nation’s earliest and largest urban park systems, and he was elected its president in 1881. He also served on the Board of City Trusts beginning in 1869, was vice president of the board from 1870 to 1878, and then president from 1878 to 1882, helping administer charitable and municipal trusts for the benefit of Philadelphia’s citizens.

In addition to these roles, Phillips was active in the city’s cultural and intellectual institutions. He became a director of the Academy of Music in 1870 and was elected its president in 1872, a position he held until his resignation in 1884, thereby playing a key role in the management of one of Philadelphia’s principal venues for music and the performing arts. He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1871, joining one of the nation’s oldest learned societies and underscoring his standing in the intellectual life of the city. He also served as a member of the commission to supervise the erection of the municipal buildings in Philadelphia in 1870, resigning from that commission in 1871, and he became a director of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company in 1874, linking him to one of the most powerful transportation enterprises of the era.

Henry Myer Phillips died in Philadelphia on August 28, 1884. He was interred in Mount Sinai Cemetery in Frankford, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a burial ground associated with the city’s Jewish community. His legacy was commemorated within Freemasonry through the naming of Henry M. Phillips Masonic Lodge No. 337 in Monongahela, Pennsylvania, in his honor. As Pennsylvania’s second Jewish congressman and a long-serving civic leader, his career reflected both his engagement in national politics and his sustained commitment to the legal, cultural, and institutional development of Philadelphia.