Vanden Houten, William Frederick

William Frederick Vanden Houten (1854 - 1943), often publishing as Vanden Houten and Co. and sometimes as Press of W.F. Vanden Houten Co., was a lithographic printer active in New York City (Manhattan and Brooklyn) in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Little is known of his early life and training aside from his being born in Holland and immigrating in 1865, but Vanden Houten began publishing around 1879, initially primarily focusing on legal decisions and texts, then branching out into other fields in the mid-1890s. In 1895, Vanden Houten was elected secretary and treasurer of the North America and Brazil Mail Steamship Company, which presumably limited the amount of time he could contribute to printing. The use of 'Vanden Houten and Co.' from the early 1880s suggests that Vanden Houten had long-established business partners, though records of publications with his name end around 1910, suggesting that the printing business was a secondary concern. He appears to have continued business ventures in other fields, serving on the board of trustees of the Great New York Savings Bank in the early 20th century (though still listed as a 'Printer' in the bank's documents and on census documents until at least 1930). In 1915, Vanden Houten's three sons (George H., John C., and William F., Jr.) organized a new firm called W. F. Vanden Houten's Sons, based in Manhattan; it nominally operated until the late 1940s, though with few known publications aside from several editions of the Annual Report of the Silk Association of America.