{{Short description|Book-publishing imprint of Wolters Kluwer}} {{Use American English|date=February 2026}} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2026}} {{Infobox publisher | image = | parent = Wolters Kluwer | status = | founded = 1998 | founder = | successor = | country = United States | headquarters = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. | distribution = | keypeople = | publications = books, journals | topics = Medicine | genre = | imprints = | revenue = | numemployees = | nasdaq = | url = {{URL|http://www.lww.com}} }} '''Lippincott Williams & Wilkins''' ('''LWW''') is an American imprint of the American Dutch publishing conglomerate Wolters Kluwer. It was established by the acquisition of Williams & Wilkins and its merger with J.B. Lippincott Company in 1998. Under the LWW brand, Wolters Kluwer, through its Health Division, publishes scientific, technical, and medical content such as textbooks, reference works, and over 275 scientific journals (most of which are medical or other public health journals). Publications are aimed at physicians, nurses, clinicians, and students.

Lippincott had its headquarters in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with other United States locations in Baltimore, Maryland, New York City, New York, Hagerstown, Maryland, and Ambler, Pennsylvania, as well as locations in London, Hong Kong, and Sydney. Most of those offices are still in service under Wolters Kluwer.

==History== The publisher traces its origins to a Philadelphia bookstall opened by Benjamin Warner and Jacob Johnson in 1792. Joshua Ballinger Lippincott assumed control of the firm in 1836, and it later operated as the J. B. Lippincott Company for much of the 19th and 20th centuries.<ref>{{Cite web |title=J.B. Lippincott Company Records {{!}} HSP |url=https://www.portal.hsp.org/jb-lippincott-company-records |access-date=2026-02-18 |website=Hspveneer |language=en}}</ref>

In 1978, J.B. Lippincott Company was sold to Harper & Row, after which it shifted its publishing focus exclusively to health care. In 1990, it was sold by News Corporation to Wolters Kluwer. It was later merged with Raven Press in 1995 to become '''Lippincott-Raven Publishers''', which then merged with Williams & Wilkins, ultimately forming '''Lippincott Williams & Wilkins''' in 1998.<ref>{{Cite web |title=J.B. Lippincott Company records - Philadelphia Area Archives |url=https://findingaids.library.upenn.edu/records/HSP_PHI.3104 |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20250123001456/https://findingaids.library.upenn.edu/records/HSP_PHI.3104 |archive-date=2025-01-23 |access-date=2026-02-18 |website=findingaids.library.upenn.edu |language=en}}</ref>

LWW grew out of the gradual consolidation of various earlier independent publishers by Wolters Kluwer. Predecessor Wolters Samson acquired Raven Press of New York in 1986.<ref>{{Cite news | volume = 238| issue = 27| pages = 19–| last = Feldman| first = Gayle| title = Going Dutch: Wolters Kluwer and Elsevier are quietly building PSP empires on both sides of the Atlantic| work = Publishers Weekly| access-date = 2019-05-05| date = 1991-06-21| url = http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A10908845/LitRC}}</ref> Wolters Samson merged with Kluwer in 1987. The merged company bought J. B. Lippincott & Co. of Philadelphia in 1990; it merged Lippincott with the Raven Press to form Lippincott-Raven in 1995.<ref>{{Cite news | volume = 242| issue = 17| pages = 14| title = WK merging Lippincott, Raven| work = Publishers Weekly| access-date = 2019-05-05| date = 1995-04-24| url = http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A16860082/LitRC?u=awcl_main&sid=LitRC&xid=bd306524}}</ref> In 1997 and 1998, Wolters Kluwer acquired Thomson Science (owner of the Current Opinion medical journals), and Plenum and merged the medical publications of each with Lippincott-Raven.<ref>{{Cite book| publisher = MIT Press| isbn = 978-0-262-02848-6| pages = 194| last = Kwoka| first = John| title = Mergers, Merger Control, and Remedies: A Retrospective Analysis of U.S. Policy| chapter = Merger Among Wolters Kluwer, Thomson, Waverly, and Plenum (1997)| date = 2015}}</ref> In 1998, Wolters Kluwer bought Waverly, parent of Williams & Wilkins of Baltimore and merged it into Lippincott-Raven to form LWW.<ref>{{Cite news| issn = 1930-8965| pages = 1–| last = Murray| first = Shanon D.| title = Dutch publisher to buy Waverly for $375 million; 108-year-old city firm to be scaled back but stay at Camden Yards; 400 workers' fate unclear: [FINAL Edition]| work = The Sun; Baltimore, Md.| location = Baltimore, Md., United States, Baltimore, Md.| date = 1998-02-12| id = {{ProQuest|407009543}}}}</ref> Waverly had acquired Lea & Febiger of Philadelphia in 1990.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://discover.hsp.org/Record/ead-LCP.in.HSP201/Description#tabnav|title = Lea & Febiger records 1815–1992}}</ref> In 2000, Wolters Kluwer bought Springhouse Corporation from Reed Elsevier.<ref>{{Cite web| title = WOLTERS KLUWER AGREES TO ACQUIRE SPRINGHOUSE CORP. – Free Online Library| access-date = 2019-10-21| url = https://www.thefreelibrary.com/WOLTERS+KLUWER+AGREES+TO+ACQUIRE+SPRINGHOUSE+CORP.-a063172269}}</ref> In 2002 LWW ceased being an operating company and completed the path to being simply a brand of the conglomerate.

== See also == *Journals published by LWW

== References == {{reflist}}

==External links== *{{Official website|http://www.lww.com/}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Lippincott Williams and Wilkins}} Category:Academic publishing companies Category:Publishing companies of the United States Category:1792 establishments in Pennsylvania Category:American subsidiaries of foreign companies