Benjamin Pike Jr.

Benjamin Pike Jr.
Born	1809 New York City, New York, U.S.
Died	May 7th, 1864 (aged 53) Astoria, New York, U.S.
Spouse	Frances Matilda Hope ​ ​ (m. 1838)​
Father	Benjamin Pike Sr.

Benjamin Pike Jr. (1809-May 7, 1864) was a manufacturer of philosophical and optical instruments. He was the eldest son of Benjamin Pike Sr., whom he joined in business in 1831-1841, creating the firm Benjamin Pike & Son.

Early Life

Benjamin Pike Jr. was born into an English immigrant family in New York City, New York, in 1809, the son of an optician who had created his own optical, scientific, and engineering business just three years earlier in New York, Benjamin Pike Sr. Very little is known about Pike’s early life, but it is known he grew up in the Pike family home on North Moore Street, Manhattan, as did his siblings. It is presumed that he studied to be an optician like Pike Sr., and records show that around 1831 he joined his father in business, with the firm being renamed Benjamin Pike & Son. This name would change quite frequently as family members came and went from the business. Daniel Pike joined his brother and father as an optician in 1839, and the business was renamed Benjamin Pike & Sons.

Career

By 1840, the firm was viewed in high regard by patrons and experts alike, with Benjamin Pike & Sons going on to win a Silver Medal at the Fifth Annual Fair of the Mechanics’ Institute, being commended for their “surveying and drawing instruments”. The Thirteenth Annual Fair of the American Institute would mark another victory for the firm after receiving a second place Diploma for “specimens of surveyors compasses and levels, beautiful finish”

In 1843, Benjamin Jr. separated from his family’s business and formed his own firm, known simply as Benjamin Pike Jr. & Co., located at 294 Broadway, that also served as his family’s home until 1858.

It is here where both Pike Jr.’s optical knowledge and marketing genius propelled his business to new heights through the 1840s through both innovative strategy and market expansion. He is known to have issued two 2-volume catalogs, in 1848 and in 1856, that exploded his popularity and shared the expanse of his instruments' quality and reputation. Benjamin Jr. had evidently learned the field extremely well as he won countless awards for both the quality and use of his many instruments. His firm would go on to win three silver medals at American Institute Fairs shortly after going into business. Two of which were for his remarkably “superior air pumps” and one other for his innovative and galvanic battery and its corresponding apparatus. It was again at the American Institute Fairs that he would win two diplomas that demonstrated his firm’s proficiency in both purely mathematical and scientific instruments.

Rather than simply restricting himself to the market of New York City and those who physically came to his firm, Pike created and published a massive catalog of over 750 items, fitted with illustrations and lengthy descriptions of countless scientific instruments manufactured by his company. An innovation not only revolutionary for his business but for the entire scientific world the diaspora of its knowledge. Allowing orders to flow in from all across the United States that brought Pike to new heights of fame and prestige. He then massively expanded his business to accommodate the new influx of customers that made his firm immensely successful.

With such a quantity of both patrons and corresponding fame, the Pike family desired an escape from the busy and crowded life of the city where they had been living on the upper floors of their shop for over a decade. So using the vast riches collected as a result of their massive surge in business, the Pike family constructed an $85,000 built a 27-room mansion in Northern Queens in what is today Astoria, New York. He was seen here in the 1860 U.S. Census despite his famous optical firm having his occupation listed as a farmer. The home was later sold to William Steinway of the piano-making Steinway family in 1870 after the death of Benjamin Pike Jr., and is today known as the Steinway Mansion.

Personal life

Pike married Frances Matilda Hope on April 14, 1838, with whom he had a son and two daughters.

Death

Pike died suddenly and without known cause on May 7th, 1864, in Astoria, New York, around the age of 53. His widow subsequently sold the mansion, which it would be bought by William Steinway in 1870. It is unknown where Pike's wife and children moved after this.