Harriot, Thomas (1560–02 July 1621), scientist, linguist, and author of the first English book on North America, was born in Oxford (city or county), England; his parentage is unknown. As an undergraduate he entered St. Mary’s Hall (attached to Oriel College, Oxford) in 1576, matriculated in the University of Oxford in 1557, and graduated B.A. in 1580. He never married....
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Harriot, Thomas (1560-1621), scientist, linguist, and author of the first English book on North America
David B. Quinn
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Hill, Thomas (1818-1891), Unitarian clergyman, college president, and scientist
Luke Fernandez
Hill, Thomas (07 January 1818–21 November 1891), Unitarian clergyman, college president, and scientist, was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, the son of Thomas Hill, a judge, and Henrietta Barker. Hill’s father died when Hill was ten, leaving the family only a modest amount of money. In his early years, Hill apprenticed himself to a printer and to an apothecary, but he was not happy in either of these professions. With the financial help of his older brothers, Hill hired a tutor in Latin and Greek and was accepted into Harvard in 1839. In his senior year he published a pamphlet, ...
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Holden, Edward Singleton (1846-1914), astronomer and librarian
Donald E. Osterbrock
Holden, Edward Singleton (05 November 1846–16 March 1914), astronomer and librarian, was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Edward Holden and Sarah Frances Singleton. His mother died when he was three years old, and he was sent to live with his aunt, the wife of a Boston attorney, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This family (and his own) were related to ...
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Mitchel, Ormsby Macknight (1809-1862), astronomer and advocate of science
Philip S. Shoemaker
Mitchel, Ormsby Macknight (28 July 1809–30 October 1862), astronomer and advocate of science, was born in Morganfield, Kentucky, the son of John Mitchel and Elizabeth McAllister, farmers. His father died less than two years after Ormsby’s birth, necessitating the sale of the family farm and forcing the widow and boy to shuttle between the homes of his grown siblings in Ohio. Despite that hardship, Ormsby Mitchel gained a reputation as a prodigy, which he parlayed into an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1825. At the time he attended, West Point offered the finest training in science and engineering in the United States. Following graduation in 1829, Mitchel taught mathematics at the academy for two years. He married Louisa Clark Trask in 1831; she had a son by a previous marriage, and they had at least six children together....
