Series I: Photographs

Series I highlights Steinway & Sons factories, showrooms, employees, and events. In addition, a few photographs show early Steinway family residences on East 52nd Street. An early Steinway & Sons factory and showroom at 82-84 Walker Street is shown in an early photograph, as is the much larger factory built at Park Avenue and 53rd Street in the early 1860s. Many photographs show the exterior and interior of Steinway Hall, a 2,000-seat auditorium on Union Square that served as a general-purpose meeting space, as well as the home of the New York Philharmonic until the opening of Carnegie Hall in 1891.

Several photographs show annual dinners and luncheons given for the Steinway & Sons staff. Others show dinners at which Steinway family members were in attendance. These were usually music-related groups, such as the New York Musicians Club, and the Society of the Friends of Music. A photograph shows a dinner celebration for the 70th birthday of Walter Damrosch.

Henry E. Steinway, his sons Henry, William, Charles G, and Albert Steinway are shown in several photographs. Photographs include albumen prints, silver gelatin prints, stereographs, and a few modern copy prints, made from glass negatives in the possession of the LaGuardia Community College Library. Most bear detailed descriptions written by Henry Z. Steinway on the verso or on separate sheet of paper enclosed with each photograph. Photographers represented in the collection include Pach Brothers, S. Beer, and A.B. Bogart.