Background
Henry Dexter was born on March 14, 1813, at West Cambridge, Massachussets, the son of Jonathan Marsh and Elizabeth (Balch) Dexter, and a descendant of Richard Dexter, who was admitted freeman of Boston in 1642.
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Henry Dexter
Edit ProfileEducation
Dexter was educated in public and private schools. Beginning in his fourteenth year he 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.
Career
Dexter 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.
He was greatly interested in civic projects. 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 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. 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
Membership
Dexter was director of the American Bible Society and American Tract Society, and 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, Dexter was married to Lucretia Marquand Perry.
