Lewis Henry Steiner

Lewis Henry Steiner (May 4, 1827 – February 18, 1892) was an American medical doctor and librarian. He was a member of the Maryland Senate from 1872 to 1884.

Biography Lewis Henry Steiner was born in Frederick, Maryland.

He was educated at Marshall College, Pennsylvania, where he received the degree of A.M. in 1849, and was graduated the same year at the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania. He began to practise in Frederick, but in 1852 moved to Baltimore, where for three years he was associated with John R. W. Dunbar in the conduct of the Baltimore Medical Institute, at the end of which time he returned to Frederick.

Soon after he began to practise his attention was especially directed to chemistry and the allied sciences, and during his residence in Baltimore his time was largely occupied in teaching. He was professor of chemistry and natural history in Columbian College, Washington, D.C., and also of chemistry and pharmacy in the National Medical College, Washington, in 1853; lecturer on chemistry and physics in St. James College, Maryland, in 1854; lecturer on applied chemistry in the Maryland Institute in 1855, and professor of chemistry in the Maryland College of Pharmacy in 1856.

During the Civil War, he was actively employed as an inspector by the United States Sanitary Commission, and for a period was in charge of its operations in the Army of the Potomac as chief inspector. His efforts were chiefly responsible for the Maryland General Assembly adopting the 1876 Great Seal of Maryland, which remains the State's Seal to this day.

In 1884 he was appointed librarian of the Enoch Pratt Free Library, remaining there until his death.

Family In 1866, he married Sarah Spencer Smyth. They had six children, of which one, his son Bernard Christian Steiner, succeeded his father as librarian.

Works edition of Heinrich Will, Outlines of Chemical Analysis, translated from the 3rd German edition, with Daniel Brud (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1855) Cantate Domino: a Collection of Chants, Hymns, etc., for Church Service, with Henry Schwing (Boston, 1859) Report containing a Diary kept during the Rebel Occupation of Frederick, Md., etc. (New York, 1862) He published other translations from the German, with monographs, reports, lectures, and speeches.