Williams Haynes

Nathan Gallup Williams Haines (July 29, 1886, Detroit November 16, 1970, Stonington, Connecticut) was an American journalist, editor, publisher and historian of chemistry. He is best known for his 6-volume American chemical industry: history. Williams Haines was born in Detroit, where his father, David Olyphant Haines, was the publisher of The Pharmaceutical Era, as well as president and general manager of DO Haynes & Co. In 1896, DO Haynes founded the New York Commercial as a daily business newspaper in New York. Williams Haines worked as a New York Sun reporter and editor of Field and Fancy from 1906 to 1907. He enrolled in 1908 as a special student at Johns Hopkins University, where he studied economics, biology, and chemistry, but left without a degree in 1911. He married his first wife in June 1911. From 1911 to 1916 he was an employee of magazines and newspapers and at various times visited Canada and Europe as a journalist. From 1914 to 1915, he was editor-in-chief of the newspaper Northampton, Massachusetts Herald (daily newspaper). In 1916, he became editor-in-chief of D. O. Haynes & Co. As editor, he was responsible for the journal of the chemical industry, Drug and Chemical Markets, and in 1920 became the publisher of the magazine. In 1926, he divided the magazine into two magazines: Medicines and Cosmetics and Chemicals (later called Chemical Week, owned by McGraw-Hill). In 1926, he also began publishing plastic products (renamed Modern Plastics, published from 1934 to 2004). In 1928, he founded the series of books “Who is Who” and was the chief editor of this series until 1951. In 1939, Haines sold his interest in trade magazines to focus his efforts as an author and editor. He moved into ownership near Stonington in eastern Connecticut.