{"id":355,"date":"2019-02-11T17:45:16","date_gmt":"2019-02-11T17:45:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/?p=355"},"modified":"2024-08-31T17:05:53","modified_gmt":"2024-08-31T16:05:53","slug":"the-many-lives-of-calouste-gulbenkian-worlds-richest-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/2019\/02\/11\/the-many-lives-of-calouste-gulbenkian-worlds-richest-man\/","title":{"rendered":"The Many Lives of Calouste Gulbenkian, World&#8217;s Richest Man"},"content":{"rendered":"<!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-355-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/236\/2019\/02\/Jon-Conlin-Mr-Five-Percent1.m4a?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/236\/2019\/02\/Jon-Conlin-Mr-Five-Percent1.m4a\">http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/236\/2019\/02\/Jon-Conlin-Mr-Five-Percent1.m4a<\/a><\/audio>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>At a ceremony in Lisbon last Thursday His Excellency Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, President of Portugal, helped launch Jonathan Conlin&#8217;s new biography of the Anglo-Armenian oil baron Calouste Gulbenkian (1869-1955). Published in English by Profile Books as <em><a href=\"https:\/\/profilebooks.com\/mr-five-per-cent.html\">Mr Five Per Cent: The Many Lives of Calouste Gulbenkian, World&#8217;s Richest Man<\/a><\/em>, Jonathan&#8217;s book coincides with a year of festivities marking the 150th anniversary of Gulbenkian&#8217;s birth. In addition to helping create familiar industry titans such as Shell and Total, Gulbenkian was also an art collector and philanthropist: the <a href=\"https:\/\/gulbenkian.pt\/uk-branch\/\">Gulbenkian Foundation<\/a> he endowed remains the world&#8217;s 36th wealthiest charitable foundation, and the <a href=\"https:\/\/gulbenkian.pt\/museu\/en\/\">Gulbenkian Museum<\/a> is one of the most popular tourist sites in Lisbon.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"356\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/2019\/02\/11\/the-many-lives-of-calouste-gulbenkian-worlds-richest-man\/190124-prmrs-ro-0008-2989\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/236\/2019\/02\/190124-PRMRS-RO-0008-2989.jpg?fit=800%2C533&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"800,533\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"190124-PRMRS-RO-0008-2989\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/236\/2019\/02\/190124-PRMRS-RO-0008-2989.jpg?fit=660%2C440&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-356\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/236\/2019\/02\/190124-PRMRS-RO-0008-2989.jpg?resize=393%2C262\" alt=\"\" width=\"393\" height=\"262\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/236\/2019\/02\/190124-PRMRS-RO-0008-2989.jpg?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/236\/2019\/02\/190124-PRMRS-RO-0008-2989.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/236\/2019\/02\/190124-PRMRS-RO-0008-2989.jpg?resize=700%2C466&amp;ssl=1 700w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/236\/2019\/02\/190124-PRMRS-RO-0008-2989.jpg?w=800&amp;ssl=1 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 393px) 100vw, 393px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Conlin&#8217;s biography has sparked a national conversation in Portugal, where the Foundation has enjoyed a large profile since its establishment in 1956, by drawing attention to Gulbenkian&#8217;s original vision for his foundation &#8211; which Gulbenkian intended to benefit all of humanity, rather than any one nation. In his speech the President praised Conlin&#8217;s book for its style and the rigour of the research underpinning it.<\/p>\n<p>The book is the product of a five-year research project at the University of Southampton funded by the Gulbenkian Foundation, which saw Conlin working with original sources in ten different countries, written in nine different languages. <em>Mr Five Per Cent <\/em>has also received plaudits in UK, with all major newspapers carrying reviews; <em>The Economist <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.economist.com\/books-and-arts\/2019\/01\/05\/the-extraordinary-life-of-calouste-gulbenkian\">praised<\/a> it as &#8220;meticulous&#8221;. Further launch events will take place in London, Paris, Los Angeles, Boston and New York over the next three months, a testament to the broad ramifications of Gulbenkian&#8217;s career as well as the stature he enjoys among the Armenian diaspora.<\/p>\n<p>You can listen to an interview with the author by Dr Crister Petley atop the page.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/profilebooks.com\/mr-five-per-cent.html\"><em><strong>Mr. Five Per Cent <\/strong><\/em><\/a>is available for purchase via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/Mr-Five-Cent-Calouste-Gulbenkian-ebook\/dp\/B07F9YVZ5J\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1549368268&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=conlin+mr+five+per+cent\">Amazon<\/a> (including on Kindle devices), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.waterstones.com\/book\/mr-five-per-cent\/jonathan-conlin\/9781788160421\">Waterstones<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.southampton-books.com\/new-nonfiction\/\">Southampton Books<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>A pre-production copy of Dr Conlin\u2019s 2016 article in <em>Turcica<\/em>, \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/eprints.soton.ac.uk\/407712\/\">The amiras and the Ottoman Empire, 1880-1923: the case of the Gulbenkians<\/a>\u2019 is available via the University of Southampton under a Creative Common (attribution, non-commercial, no derivatives) license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; At a ceremony in Lisbon last Thursday His Excellency Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, President of Portugal, helped launch Jonathan Conlin&#8217;s new biography of the Anglo-Armenian oil baron Calouste Gulbenkian (1869-1955). Published in English by Profile Books as Mr Five Per Cent: The Many Lives of Calouste Gulbenkian, World&#8217;s Richest Man, Jonathan&#8217;s book coincides with a year of festivities marking &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3768,"featured_media":356,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,8],"tags":[66,64,69,63,65,67,70],"class_list":["post-355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","category-research","tag-art","tag-capitalism","tag-energy","tag-oil","tag-portugal","tag-the-middle-east","tag-the-ottoman-empire","column","threecol","has-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/236\/2019\/02\/190124-PRMRS-RO-0008-2989.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9DnLX-5J","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":861,"url":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/2025\/10\/13\/escape-room-in-a-box-and-digital-humanities-by-stephanie-barter\/","url_meta":{"origin":355,"position":0},"title":"Escape Room in a Box and Digital Humanities by Stephanie Barter","author":"Craig Lambert","date":"13th October 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Blog Post \u2013 An Escape Room in a Box Last November, I began a Digital Humanities internship, investigating the possible uses of their Museum in a Box (MiaB) which had been previously rarely used. The project involved the Museum in a Box \u2013 an acrylic box designed to play audio\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Notes from the archive&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Notes from the archive","link":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/category\/notes-from-the-archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/236\/2025\/10\/image-2.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/236\/2025\/10\/image-2.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/236\/2025\/10\/image-2.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":883,"url":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/2025\/11\/10\/the-war-we-see-podcast-conversations-about-war-imagery\/","url_meta":{"origin":355,"position":1},"title":"The War We See podcast: Conversations about War Imagery","author":"Craig Lambert","date":"10th November 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Author Hirah Azhar, Doctoral researcher in the Department of History, University of Southampton and Imperial War Museum Blog Who decides what we see of war? 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In\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Notes from the archive&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Notes from the archive","link":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/category\/notes-from-the-archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/236\/2025\/11\/image-scaled.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/236\/2025\/11\/image-scaled.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/236\/2025\/11\/image-scaled.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/236\/2025\/11\/image-scaled.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/236\/2025\/11\/image-scaled.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/236\/2025\/11\/image-scaled.png?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":545,"url":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/2021\/02\/04\/teaching-in-an-age-of-covid\/","url_meta":{"origin":355,"position":2},"title":"Teaching in an Age of COVID","author":"Jonathan Hunt","date":"4th February 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Professor Neil Gregor Avenue Campus, where single and dual honours History students once congregated en masse. This year has brought its challenges for tutors and students alike.\u00a0 But the need to rethink how we deliver our teaching has also brought its advantages. 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