Jane Bachner Researcher, 2008–Present

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Jane Bachner’s research has focused on New York’s geography and history, as well as on many of the people who worked for or with William Steinway in his enterprises aside from the piano company. She plotted the itineraries for William’s drives through Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan and the Bronx that were part of his regular business.

He made his rounds through the city visiting friends, stopping at social clubs and restaurants, or reviewing the progress of one of his development-related endeavors, such as a new firehouse constructed for Long Island City by the Astoria Homestead Company. Bachner has explored the reasons why Queens and Brooklyn have so many cemeteries, and researched the history of the Queens Public Library System as part of the work to identify a Mrs. Von Poser, the Steinway Village librarian. A native New Yorker who grew up in Queens, Bachner has been fascinated to learn the history of the borough’s many neighborhoods, and the changes that have taken place since William’s time.

Bachner has a degree in economics from the City College of New York and did graduate work in labor economics and labor relations at Cornell University. She was an economist for the federal government from 1970 until 2008 at the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Cost of Living Council and, at the Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration from 1974 until she retired as the Deputy Associate Administrator for Policy. She directed freight rail and intermodal economic analysis for FRA and DOT. She lives with her husband, James Derwin, in Annapolis, Maryland.