H. L. (Herbert Lee) Barber

Born in 1865 and dying in 1937, Herbert Lee Barber was remembered as a publisher, economist, investment banker, and author whose work spoke to readers interested in money, markets, and modern industry.

He is associated with books including Making Money Make Money (1912), Investing for Profits (1917), and Story of the Automobile (1917). Those titles suggest the range of his interests: practical personal finance on one hand, and the rise of one of the era’s defining technologies on the other.

Barber was also active in business life beyond his books. Accounts connected him with Chicago’s commercial and cultural circles and with development projects in Montana, where he helped build the townsite of Williams after recognizing the potential of newly irrigated land.