Steinway, Henry E.
Steinway, Steinweg, Henry, Heinrich Engelhard, *15 February 1797 Wolfshagen (Harz), †7 February 1871 New York, German piano builder. After studying with a carpenter and organ builder, he settled in Seesen in 1820. He founded one of the most famous piano factories. Initially, he built guitars and zithers, and from 1835 pianos, which received the first prize at the exhibition in Braunschweig in 1839. In 1850 (after building 482 instruments) he emigrated with his family to the United States, where in 1853, he founded a piano factory in New York with his sons (called Steinway & Sons); After just 10 years of operation, it was ranked second in terms of production volume and popularity in the United States, and has received awards at many exhibitions and maintains its reputation to this day. In 1972, it was sold to Columbia Broadcasting System, and in 1985 to brothers J. and R. Birmingham and B.A. Stevens of Boston and finally, in 1995, the Selmer Company wind instrument factory in Elkhart.
Literature: R.K. Lieberman Steinway & Sons, New Haven 1995; S. Goldenberg Steinway. From Glory to Controversy, New York 1996; R.V. Ratcliffe Steinway, New York 2002.