William Steinway (1835-1896)

William Steinway was the entrepreneurial genius of his family and one of the piano world’s great promotional innovators. His marketing techniques, cultivation of eminent musicians, and extensive participation in the musical life of New York City made Steinway & Sons extraordinarily successful. Born in Seesen, Germany, he emigrated to America in 1850 at age 15 and became a partner in his family’s newly formed piano-making firm at age 21. When Steinway & Sons incorporated in 1876, William became its president and treasurer, positions he held for the remainder of his life.
 
William’s first marriage to Regina Roos ended in a painful divorce after the realization that he was not the father of their third child, Alfred. A second, far happier marriage to Elizabeth Ranft in 1880 produced three more children, including Theodore Edwin Steinway, whose blue lines indicating passages of special interest appear throughout the Diary. Recognizing its historical significance, Theodore’s son, Henry Ziegler Steinway, donated William’s diary to the Museum in 1996.