Steinway, Henry Engelhard

Henry Engelhard Steinway, original name Heinrich Engelhardt Steinweg, (born February 15, 1797, Wolfshagen, Braunschweig [Germany]—died February 7, 1871, New York, New York, U.S.), German-born American piano builder and founder of a leading piano manufacturing firm, Steinway and Sons, which remained under family ownership until 1972.

Steinway fought in the Battle of Waterloo (1815) and in 1835 opened a piano business in the duchy of Brunswick; his oldest extant piano is dated 1836. In 1849 he migrated to New York with three sons; he opened his American shop in 1853 and won prizes for numerous innovations. Important among these were the overstrung scale, a design in which the bass strings cross over the higher ones, permitting longer bass strings and improved tone; and an improved cast-iron frame that bore the tension of the strings without twisting as wooden frames tend to do. Steinway’s iron frame and overstrung scale were exhibited in a square piano in 1855; his first grand piano was produced in 1856 and the first upright model in 1862.

Henry’s son Theodore joined the firm in 1865. The company opened a branch in London in 1875 and in Hamburg in 1880. Both branches and the New York company followed the custom of other piano manufacturers in maintaining small concert halls. The Steinways’ further improvements in piano design included methods for improving the action, or key mechanism; redesigning the iron frame and case to allow increased string tension; and strengthening the soundboard.