Henry Dexter

Background

Henry Dexter was born on March 14, 1813 at West Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. He was the son of Jonathan Marsh and Elizabeth (Balch) Dexter, and a descendant of Richard Dexter, who was admitted freeman of Boston in 1642.

Education

Dexter was educated in public and private schools.

Career

Beginning in his fourteenth year Dexter served a three-year apprenticeship in a Boston printing office. Although he never attended Harvard College as he had desired to do at one time, that institution contributed greatly to his education through opportunities offered him during three years which he spent as second foreman in the printing office of the college.

He went to New York in 1836 and six years later bought an interest in the firm of Dexter & Tuttle, dealers in books, periodicals, and daily newspapers, having had, meanwhile, several years of business experience including employment in a hardware store conducted by the Whittemores, inventors of the carding machine.

The firm of Dexter & Tuttle later became Dexter & Brother, then Henry Dexter & Company, and still later H. Dexter, Hamilton & Company.

Dexter’s greatest achievement was a consolidation of leading newspaper dealers which developed into the present American News Company of which he was president for many years until 1896.

He organized a similar London corporation, the International News Company.

He gave liberally to the Metropolitan Museum of Art at the time of its founding and contributed approximately $225, 000 toward the building of the present home of the New York Historical Society. A dispute arose over this gift. On the day the building was opened Dexter caused pamphlets to be distributed to the guests stating that he had erected it in memory of his only son, Orrando Perry Dexter. Trustees of the society stopped distribution of the pamphlets, claiming that Dexter did not have a right to claim the building as his own since the society had put some $171, 000 into its construction in addition to his gift and had supplied the valuable site for the building.

One room of the New York Historical Society building is known as Henry Dexter Hall and an ornamental doorway leading into the lecture hall memorializes his son.

The extent of Dexter’s interest in reform movements and in philanthropy is indicated by the long list of organizations with which he was connected. He was vice-president of the Protestant Episcopal Church Missionary Society for Seamen, trustee of the Midnight Mission, life director of the American Bible Society and American Tract Society.

Not long before his death, he published a collection of his letters written to newspapers on various topics between his nineteenth and ninety-fourth birthdays.

Achievements

• Dexter’s greatest achievement was a consolidation of leading newspaper dealers which developed into the present American News Company.

Membership

Dexter was a member of the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, St. Luke’s Hospital Society, the Children’s Aid Society, the Home for Incurables, the Charity Organization Society, the New York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor, and the Home for Aged Married Couples.

Connections

On October 11, 1853, he married Lucretia Marquand Perry.

Father:

Jonathan Marsh Dexter

Mother:

Elizabeth (Balch) Dexter

Wife:

Lucretia Marquand Perry

Son:

Orrando Perry Dexter