He made substantial gifts and actively supported the work of individuals and groups who shared his passions for archaeology, state and local history, art, religion, education, and civic improvement.
A politically conservative Republican and a lifelong member of the Episcopal church, Lilly's traditional values concerning family, home, and community service guided his work in the pharmaceutical industry and in civic life.
[2][9] According to his biographer, James H. Madison, "Lilly was modest, unassuming, and quiet, yet under his placid exterior was an inquiring mind and abundant physical energy" and a man who "believed in hard work, all his life.
He first served as head and the only employee of the company's newly created Economic Department, where his job was to explore cost effective and more efficient ways to operate the business.
[2] Within two years, he brought new principles of scientific management to the company to improve efficiency and reward workers for meeting and exceeding production requirements.
[16] Lilly was actively involved in major projects that brought the Indianapolis company to the forefront as a top research-based pharmaceutical manufacturer.
Insulin, which the company produced and sold under the trade name of Iletin, was the result of a pioneering collaboration with University of Toronto research scientists.
[17] In May 1922, Lilly and the company's director of biochemical research, George Henry Alexander Clowes, met in Toronto with John Macleod, Frederick Banting, and Charles Best, the scientists who had discovered insulin as an effective treatment for diabetes.
[23] While the company expanded operations in Indianapolis and overseas, it established a reputation as a good place to work by providing employee assistance, sound wages, maintaining a positive outlook, and desegregating its workforce.
[24] As increased governmental regulations challenged the industry, the U.S. Justice Department investigated Eli Lilly and Company and two other pharmaceutical firms for violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act, charging them with fixing insulin prices.
Legal counsel advised Lilly to avoid the high costs and negative publicity from an extended lawsuit by pleading nolo contendere, which he did, so the company could move forward.
[27] In the renovated Curtiss-Wright complex on Kentucky Avenue in Indianapolis, Lilly employees were producing more than 250,000 ampules of penicillin per day by the late 1940s.
[28] In the postwar years, Lilly remained active in company business as it expanded overseas with the construction of a new plant in Basingstoke, England, and supporting research on new drugs.
[33] As of December 31, 2011, the Lilly Endowment "held $6.2 billion in unrestricted assets" and "approved $208.7 million in new grants" to support "community development, education and religion".
"[35] He favored areas that interested him personally and took an active leadership role in a number of organizations that he supported financially, but "his was never a selfish, self-centered philanthropy".
Lilly chose projects related to archaeology, history, historic preservation, education, and religion, especially when they were connected to Indiana and Indianapolis.
[38] In addition, Lilly became a close friend and patron of archaeologist Glenn Albert Black, who found work in the Indiana Historical Society's archaeology division.
In 1938, when funds could not be obtained elsewhere, Lilly provided the Indiana Historical Society with $68,000 of the $71,957 needed to purchase the state's most important archaeological site and save it from real estate development.
[46] Lilly and his brother also subsidized numerous projects and publications, including those related to archaeology, Indiana authors, Walam Olum, the paintings of George Winter, the diaries of Calvin Fletcher, and a Pulitzer Prize–winning history of the Old Northwest, among others.
[47] Upon his death, Lilly left the Indiana Historical Society a substantial endowment, making it one of the wealthiest organizations of its kind in the United States.
[citation needed] Lilly's personal philanthropy also included contributions to the preservation and restoration of historic houses in Indianapolis and New Harmony, Indiana, and Shakertown, Kentucky.
[49] Later that same year, HLFI purchased the Morris-Butler House, a home in the historic Old Northside neighborhood of Indianapolis, and with Lilly's help restored it to serve as a museum of mid-Victorian decorative arts and preservation education.
[50] With Lilly's assistance and a financial gift, the foundation also acquired the historic Huddleston farm in east-central Indiana in 1966 and restored its three-story, Federal-style brick home, which once served as a stop for travelers along the National Road.
His gift, in 1964, of this historic home in Hamilton County, Indiana, to Earlham College led to the development of Conner Prairie, an outdoor, living history museum.
The new building was a point of civic pride for Lilly, who donated $1.7 million in pharmaceutical company stock for its construction and provided for the institution in his will.
[60] On August 29, 1907, Lilly married his high school sweetheart, Evelyn Fortune, and moved to a house at 12 East Eleventh Street in Indianapolis.
Over the years Lilly provided financial support and maintained contact with his daughter, who also spent time with her father in Indianapolis and at Lake Wawasee.
The couple collected art and antiques, and built an expansive, three-story home in Crows Nest, at 5807 Sunset Lane in Indianapolis, on a portion of his father's 20-acre (8.1 ha).
Still, as chairman of the board, he remained involved in major decisions affecting the company, maintained regular office hours, and kept in contact with senior management.
[71] He also continued to pursue philanthropic interests in archaeology, history, and historic preservation, where he contributed financial support with his own resources as well as those of the Lilly Endowment.