Herrmann J. Meyer

German-American, 1826 - 1909

BiographyHerrmann Julius Meyer (April 4, 1826 – March 12, 1909) was a German publisher born in Gotha. He was the son of publisher Joseph Meyer (1796-1856), who published an illustrated travel series called Meyer's Universum.

Joseph Meyer very much admired the United States and sent his son to establish a publishing house in New York. Herrmann proceeded to publish an American edition of the Universum, but also desired to publish a new series of his own called, The United States Illustrated. Meyer enlisted the services of Charles A. Dana editor of the New York Tribune to serve as editor of the series. The prints from Meyer's various publications are mostly based on first-hand renderings and are finely engraved. They are some of the most interesting and desirable small views of the trans-Mississippi West.Unfortunately, the series did not do well, and Meyer decided to return to Germany.

After his father's death in 1856, Herrmann Meyer took charge of Bibliographisches Institut, a publishing firm in Hildburghausen. In 1874 he moved the headquarters to Leipzig, and in 1884 handed over the business to his sons, Arndt (1859-1920) and Hans (1858-1929), the latter renowned for his ascent of Mt. Kilimanjaro.

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