Businessman and philanthropist Augustus Lowell was born into a family of Boston Brahmins. In 1850, he was the fifth generation of his family to graduate from Harvard University. He married equally blue-blooded Katherine Bigelow Lawrence, daughter of politician Abbott Lawrence. The couple had seven children, five of whom survived and went on to important careers. The eldest, Percival, founded the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. Their second son, Abbott Lawrence, named after his mother's father, was president of Harvard from 1909 to 1933. The youngest daughter, Amy, was a well known poet.
Treasurer of two textile companies and director of a third, Lowell succeeded his father as sole trustee of the Lowell Institute, the educational foundation that the latter had endowed. The institute provides free public lectures as well as sponsoring academic ones by such famous scientists as Louis Agassiz during Augustus Lowell’s time. Lowell was also a member of the corporation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. One of the Harvard University residences is named for the Lowells.