Marquis Who’s Who founder, Albert Nelson Marquis is born on January 10 in Brown County, Southern Ohio. Orphaned as a child and raised by his maternal grandparents, he works in his grandfather’s general store as a boy, and following his grandfather’s passing, he manages the store from age 18 to 21, when he moves to Cincinnati, Ohio. There, he founds the publishing company A.N. Marquis & Company, and, in 1879, at the age of 24, he publishes the Classified Business Directory and Guide Book to the City of Chicago.

In 1883, Marquis publishes his second directory, titled The Industries of Cincinnati: The Advantages, Resources, Facilities and Commercial Relations of Cincinnati as a Center of Trade and Manufacture. The following year he moves to Chicago, where he later makes his lasting mark on the publishing world.