1814–72, American publisher, b. Brunswick, Maine; grandnephew of Israel Putnam. A member of the New York City bookselling firm of Wiley and Putnam, he established a branch in London in 1841. He later returned to New York to found (1848) G. P. Putnam’s Sons. He was proprietor of Putnam’s Magazine (1853–57), which was revived for brief periods in 1868–71 and 1906–10. One of the founders of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, he was its honorary secretary. George Haven Putnam and Herbert Putnam were his sons, and Mary Putnam Jacobi, a physician, was his daughter.
