Collection: Steinway Piano History

Steinway & Sons was established in 1853 by Henry Engelhard Steinweg at 85 Varick Street in New York.

He built his first piano in 1825 and owned an instrument shop in Seesen. Henry and his family moved to America in the 1850s and decided to americanize their name on their arrival so the Steinweg's became Steinways. Steinways & Sons grew so quickly that in 1859 they built the worlds largest piano factory.

They built their pianos one at a time, applying skills that were handed down from master to apprentice, generation after generation. In 1865 Steinway & Sons was turned upside down with the deaths of Charles and Henry Jr and in the same year Albert Steinway enlisted in the Union Army so Steinway & Sons was left without leadership. Theodore Steinweg (who stayed in Germany when the family moved to America) sold his part of Grotrian-Steinweg and travelled to America to help the family business. In 1866 they opened a concert hall (Steinway Hall) which was the centre of New York culture until 1891 when Carnegie Hall was opened. The Steinway family moved on to build a hall in London in 1875 and moved their Steinway & Sons factory to Hamburg, Germany.

Today, Steinway & Sons still build their pianos with dedication to detail. Each Steinway grand piano, for example, takes nearly a year to create. Even the carefully selected woods employed in the rims, tops, soundboards, and actions cure for months until they stabilize at a rigidly specified moisture content.

Steinway & Sons are dedicated to the ideal of making the finest pianos in the world. The result is instruments renowned for their unsurpassed quality. Pianos with such superior sound and responsive touch that they enchant the most demanding pianists. They are preferred overwhelmingly by people who share the joy of playing and owning the finest musical instrument - a joy which can be yours when you bring a Steinway into your life.