John Jacob Astor

Biography

John Jacob Astor, later founder of the Astor Library, was born in Germany in 1763. As a young man he traveled to London, where he worked for a time in a pianoforte house, before sailing for Baltimore in 1783 with a small stock of flutes as his only merchandise. A fortunate storm diverted his ship to New York, where he landed and soon entered the fur trade, meeting a New York fur merchant during the voyage who sparked his interest in the business. Astor built an extensive network of fur-trading stations across the North and Northwest, laying the foundation of his eventual fortune. His involvement with pianos was incidental: beginning in 1789 he imported a small number of instruments to help defray expenses, but abandoned the trade once his fur business grew, ceding the piano-importing field to Michael and John Paff. Spillane disputes the popular tradition crediting Astor as the first American piano importer or 'father of the music trade,' noting that others had imported pianos years earlier and that Astor himself made no such claim. John Jacob Astor is mentioned by Spillane as one of the merchants who, along with many others, was bringing pianofortes over from Europe during the 1790s, contributing to the large volume of imported instruments consumed in the United States at the time. A portrait of Astor appears among the illustrations accompanying this section of the book. John Jacob Astor started an informal piano-dealing business in New York in 1789. This business passed into the hands of John and Michael Paff in 1802, and later, after further changes, to William Dubois.

Highlights

• Born in Germany in 1763; worked briefly in a London pianoforte house before emigrating
• Sailed for Baltimore in 1783 but landed in New York, where he entered the fur trade
• Imported pianos casually from 1789 onward but never regarded it as his real business; often wrongly credited as America's first piano importer
• Founded the Astor Library
• Noted, along with many others, as bringing pianofortes over from Europe during the 1790s.
• A portrait of him is included among the book's illustrations.
• Started an informal piano-dealing business in New York in 1789.

Source

Daniel Spillane, History of the American Pianoforte (1890), pp. 68, 69, 101, 107.

Public domain.