BIEN, JULIUS

BIEN, JULIUS (1826–1909), U.S. lithographer. Bien was born in Naumburg, Germany, where he studied lithography. After participating in the unsuccessful revolution of 1848, he fled to New York where he established a small lithographic business in 1850. His abilities soon earned him most government contracts for engraving and printing major geographic and geological publications, including a map of the territory west of the Mississippi River, which was standard for 25 years. He produced the maps and atlases accompanying the federal census reports from 1870 to 1900, as well as atlases of New York State (1895) and Pennsylvania (1900). Bien was president of the National Lithographers' Association (1886–96). A director of the Hebrew Technical Institute and Hebrew Orphan Asylum in New York, he was president of the B'nai B'rith order (1854–57, 1868–1900) and instrumental in forming its international structure. Julius' brother herman m. bien (1831–1895), U.S. rabbi and author, founded a Hebrew school in San Francisco and served as rabbi of Temple Emanu-El until 1860. He then moved to Virginia City, Nevada, where he organized a school and was elected to the state legislature (1863–65). Moving to New York, he became a merchant in Fort Henry. In 1881 he was appointed rabbi of Congregation Beth Shalom in Chicago, but moved to Vicksburg, Mississippi, in 1885. Among his numerous works are the drama Samson and Delilah (1857), and Ben Beor (1891), a portrayal of anti-Semites.

[Edward L. Greenstein]