Henry Holt & Company
—In 1866, the copartnership of Frederick Leypoldt and Henry Holt was formed under the style of Leypoldt & Holt. From the start they were merely publisher and not retailers or printers. In 1871, H. O. Williams was admitted to the firm; Mr. Leypoldt soon withdrew, and the firm name was changed to Holt & Williams. Two years later Mr. Williams retired and the business was continued as Henry Holt & Company. Charles Holt, a brother of Henry Holt, was an active partner from 1878 to 1903, when the house became a stock company with Henry Holt as President, Roland Holt, Vice President, Edward N. Bristol, Secretary, Joseph F. Vogelius, Treasurer. In 1919, Mr. Vogelius resigned after more than fifty years’ connection with the house.
The firm’s first educational venture occurred in 1867, when the foreign language publications of S. R. Urbino and DeVries, Ibarra & Company of Boston were taken over. These two lists included the Otto French and German Grammars and some sixty French and German texts. Most of these same texts still appear in Henry Holt & Company’s list, though not in the form first issued. In 1869, the firm began what was practically its first original enterprise in the educational field when it issued Whitney’s German textbooks, starting with his German Reader, and following shortly with his Compendious German Grammar. In 1879, the American Science Series was begun with Packard’s Zoology. The announcements included James’ Psychology, Walker’s Political Economy, and Martin’s The Human Body. In the same year the first of Johnston’s books, American Politics, appeared. These books represent the earlier development of Henry Holt & Company’s educational business.