CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

Henry William Poor

American businessman (1844–1915)

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 17, 2026
Entity authorityQ5730239
Source-derived summary

Henry William Poor (June 16, 1844 – April 13, 1915) was an American banker, stockbroker, and author.

Biography

Early life

Henry William Poor was born in Bangor, Maine in 1844, the son of Henry Varnum Poor. The family moved to New York City when he was five years old, and he spent his youth there. He attended Harvard College, graduating in 1865. The firm that he and his father established in 1868, H. V. & H. W. Poor, which published the annually-updated reference book for investors Poor's Manual of the Railroads of the United States; the publication was a predecessor of what was to become Standard & Poor's.

He married Constance Evelyn Brandon on February 4, 1880, and they had five children. He was also reputed to be a participant in orgies in New York, with his friend Stanford White.

Career

He became prominent as a stockbroker and investor, but had to liquidate his business in 1908 following some major losses.

He was also widely known as a book collector and a patron of the arts.

Death

He died in New York City on April 13, 1915.

Editorial summary

“Henry William Poor” enters the record as american businessman (1844–1915). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Henry, William and Poor can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1844, 1915, 1865, 1868—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1844-06-16, 1844-01-01—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Henry, William and Poor.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Henry William Poor” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Henry, William and Poor provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5730239. VIAF identifies the subject as 39286067. The Library of Congress control number is nr97037013. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1844, 1915, 1865 and 1868.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Henry William Poor”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Henry William Poor primary sources, Henry William Poor archive and Henry research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Henry William Poor”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Henry William Poor” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.