[3] His older brother was Henry Fairfield Osborn, a paleontologist who served as president of the American Museum of Natural History for twenty-five years.

[1] A trained lawyer, Osborn was generally regarded as one of New York's first citizens and mostly served in philanthropic positions during his career.

[4] At the time of his death, he was the senior partner is the law firm of Osborn, Fleming & Whittlesey located at 20 Exchange Place.

Although he was endorsed by then Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt and put forth at the convention by Samuel Seabury, he lost his bid to Alfred E. Smith, who was elected Governor.

[9] Osborn served as president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art from 1941 to 1947 and sat on its board of trustees for forty-five years.

Together, they lived at 135 East 36th Street (which was owned by J.P. Morgan) in Murray Hill, Manhattan,[11] and were the parents of:[12] Along with his children, he bought up land on the eastern shore of the Hudson River in New York, mostly small farms, and eventually donated thousands of acres to the state, including Sugarloaf Hill in Putnam County to be known as the Hudson Highlands State Park.

[1] After a funeral at the Brick Presbyterian Church on the Upper East Side (which was attended by John D. Rockefeller Jr., Archibald Roosevelt, Bayard Dodge, Henry Sturgis Morgan, Junius S. Morgan, Frederick H. Ecker, and John F. Curry among others), he was buried at Saint Philip's Church Cemetery in Garrison.