Arthur Vlissingen

Background

Van Vlissingen was born in Chicago to Arthur H. Van Vlissingen, who was a prominent real estate agent in Chicago.

Career

After obtaining an engineering degree at the Northwestern University, and joined the United States Navy to serve in World War I. After graduation he joined the McGraw-Hill Publishing company as Assistant editor and later editor for the Factory and Industrial Management journal. He continued to edited the magazine in the 1930s when it was renamed Factory Management and Maintenance. In 1927 Van Vlissingen published "The Yankee of the Yards: The Biography of Gustavus Franklin Swift," co-authored with Louis Franklin Swift.

In the 1930s he joined Business Week, where he became bureau chief in the Midwest.

He later joined Newsweek, where he headed its bureau. In the 1960s he co-authored some more works on the history of postal offices in the 19th century.

Achievements

• This work provides a history of Chicago’s meat packing industry from the viewpoint of the son of the founder of the largest packing company in the world.