The marriage lasted 16 years and included a series of affairs which Steinway found devastating, according to his personal diaries.

On September 29, 1888, Daimler Motor Company of New York was founded and initially produced gasoline and petroleum engines for stationary and marine applications.

From 1892 until c. 1896–97 the "American Daimler" was produced in the premises of the Steinway Astoria plant, full copies of the German cars.

[citation needed] Following Steinway's early death in 1896, his heirs weren't convinced about the project and sold all their shares to the General Electric Company in 1898.

Nonetheless, the hand-polished wood inside the Daimler AG company's luxury top brand cars named Maybach is still (as of 2010[update]) made by Steinway's factory in Hamburg, Germany.

[4] During the 1890s, Steinway began a project to extend his company town's horse-drawn trolley line under the East River and into midtown Manhattan.

The exhibition, titled "A Gateway to the 19th Century: The William Steinway Diary, 1861–1896," was on view in the ⠀⠀Albert H. Small⠀⠀ Documents Gallery from Dec. 17, 2010, through April 8, 2011.

The site provides a detailed look at Steinway's firsthand account of the period's financial panics, labor unrest, and rise of the German immigrant class.

The primary source material is contextualized with more than 100 images from Steinway family archives and related essays.