Nathan joined his father in the firm of L. Straus & Son in 1872, and his brother Isidor in the firm of R. H. Macy & Company. Straus has shown considerable interest in municipal affairs, becoming a member of the New York Forest Preserve Board and park commissioner of New York in 1893. He was offered the nomination of mayor of New York in 1894, and was appointed president of the Board of Health of New York in 1898. He originated in 1890, and has since maintained at his own expense, a system for the distribution of sterilized milk to the poor of New York city which has been shown by the report of the Health Department of New York to have saved many infant lives. He contributed also to the establishment of the same system in Chicago and Philadelphia. He likewise originated and maintained during the coal strike in the winter of 1903-4 a system of depots for the distribution of coal to the poor of New York. Straus has shown considerable interest in trotting.

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http://www.straushistoricalsociety.org/lazarus-and-sara-straus.html

Nathan used his boundless energies to develop outside sources for the family business. He traveled to Europe on buying trips where he met and married Lina Gutherz. He became interested in the pasteurization of milk after a cow on his farm died of TB. He built and paid for pasteurization laboratories first in New York, then all over the US and finally around the world. He built a TB "Preventorium" and became a Zionist during the early part of the 20th century. He built the Jerusalem Health Center and labored for the Hebrew University. He was Commissioner of Parks in NYC and head of the Department of Health.