McGraw Hill

James Herbert McGraw organized the McGraw Publishing Company in 1899, eleven years after purchasing the American Journal of Railway Appliancies in 1888.

John Alexander Hill organized the Hill Publishing Company in 1902 after having owned and operated machine shops and working as a railroad engineer since the 1880s. Starting in 1888, Hill worked as the editor of Locomotive Engineer, and in 1896, he became president of the American Machinist Press. From 1900 to 1902 he served as mechanical engineer for the General Manifold Company, custom-designing machinery. In 1902, he formed his own company, The Hill Publishing Company, As head of Hill Publishing, he printed five weekly magazines: American Machinist, Power, Engineering News, The Engineering and Mining Journal, and Coal Age.

Hill had known James Herbert McGraw, who had established The McGraw Publishing Company in 1899, for some time, and the two men shared similar interests. In 1909 they agreed upon an alliance and combined the book departments of their publishing companies into The McGraw-Hill Book Company. Hill served as president of this combined company from 1909 to 1916, the year he died unexpectedly of a heart condition.

The following year, the remaining parts of Hill's company merged with McGraw's to form The McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, which later became The McGraw-Hill Companies. James McGraw served as president of McGraw-Hill from 1917-1928.

In 1988, McGraw Hill acquired the school and college division of Random House, Inc., and in 1993, they acquired Macmillan, Glencoe, Science Research Associates, Inc. (SRA), and Laidlaw.