The elder Josiah W. Macy established a shipping and commission firm in New York City, after leaving the family home in Nantucket, Massachusetts, where his family had settled during the early 17th century.

Josiah Macy's sons and grandsons earned their money from an oil company that was later incorporated into the Standard Oil Company under the Rockefeller family.

Josiah W. Macy Jr. died from typhoid fever at his estate in Harrison, New York on October 5, 1876.

Time magazine in 1930 reported[4] that the Foundation created a fellowship "to pay the expenses of an assistant for Albert Einstein.

First incumbent will be Dr. Einstein's good friend and familiar, Dr. Walter Mayer, mathematician at the University of Vienna."