Adler, George J. (1821–24 August 1868), philologist, was born in Leipzig, Germany, the son of John J. Adler. His mother’s name is unknown. He immigrated to the United States at the age of twelve and later graduated as valedictorian of the class of 1844 at New York University. He was appointed professor of modern languages there in 1846, and by 1847 he had published two textbooks on German language....
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Adler, George J. (1821-1868), philologist
James M. Prichard
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Bloomfield, Maurice (1855-1928), philologist
Mark J. Connelly
Bloomfield, Maurice (23 February 1855–13 June 1928), philologist, was born in Bielitz, Austria, the son of Solomon Bloomfield and Bertha Jaeger. In 1859 the family emigrated to the United States, took up residence in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and shortly thereafter moved to Chicago, Illinois. There Bloomfield received his early education and entered the University of Chicago in 1871. After three years he decided to continue his studies at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, and earned his B.A. there and then his M.A. in 1877. While attending Furman, Bloomfield became interested in Oriental studies (Indology) while under the sway of biblical scholar Crawford H. Toy, and he subsequently took up Sanskrit and comparative philology at Yale (1877–1878) under ...
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Bolling, George Melville (1871-1963), classical philologist and linguist
E. Christian Kopff
Bolling, George Melville (13 April 1871–02 June 1963), classical philologist and linguist, was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of William Nicholls Bolling and Hannah Lamb Bonham. Bolling’s teacher, master Hellenist Basil L. Gildersleeve, described him as “a gentleman by birth and breeding.” The Bollings and Lambs traced their ancestors back to seventeenth-century Virginia....
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Child, Francis James (1825-1896), philologist and editor
Benjamin Franklin
Child, Francis James (01 February 1825–11 September 1896), philologist and editor, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Joseph Child, a sailmaker, and Mary James. After attending the Boston Latin School, he matriculated at Harvard College; he ranked first in his class and was elected class orator. Following his graduation in 1846, he became a tutor in mathematics at his alma mater and then, in 1848, in history and political economy. Also in 1848 he published his edition of ...
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Davis, Charles Henry Stanley (1840-1917), physician, philologist, and Orientalist
James T. Goodrich
Davis, Charles Henry Stanley (02 March 1840–07 November 1917), physician, philologist, and Orientalist, was born in Goshen, Connecticut, the son of Timothy Fisher Davis, a physician, and Moriva Hatch. Davis received his early education in the public school system of Meriden, Connecticut, and later through a private tutor, Dr. William Baker. In 1864 he entered the University of Maryland, where he began studies in medicine. He received an M.D. in 1866 from the University of the City of New York. He then undertook postgraduate work in Boston, Massachusetts, and during this period began the publication (1866) of the ...
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Du Ponceau, Pierre Étienne (1760-1844), scholar and lawyer
Gerard W. Gawalt
Du Ponceau, Pierre Étienne (03 June 1760–01 April 1844), scholar and lawyer, was born in St. Martin, Isle of Ré, France, the son of a French army officer. He was trained first for the military, which he had to abandon because of poor eyesight, and then for the Roman Catholic priesthood by Benedictine monks at St. Jean Angely and at the Episcopal College in Poitou. After 1775 Du Ponceau served as a secretary and assistant to minor government officials in Paris and to the philologist Count de Gebelin. He came to the United States in 1777 as secretary and nominal military aide to Prussian army officer Baron ...
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Frank, Tenney (1876-1939), historian of ancient Rome and philologist
J. Linderski
Frank, Tenney (19 May 1876–03 April 1939), historian of ancient Rome and philologist, was born in Clay Center, Kansas, the son of Oliver Frank and Caroline Danielson, farmers. He received his A.B. in classics and geology (1898) and his M.A. in classics (1899) from the University of Kansas and his Ph.D. in classics (1903) from the University of Chicago. In 1907 he married Grace Edith Mayer, who became a noted scholar in Romance philology. They had no children. He pursued his studies on a sabbatical at the Universities of Göttingen and Berlin in 1910–1911....
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Friedlaender, Israel (1876-1920), professor and Semitics scholar
Baila R. Shargel
Friedlaender, Israel (08 September 1876–05 July 1920), professor and Semitics scholar, was born in Włodawa, Poland, the son of Pinḥas Friedlaender, a cattle dealer, and Gittel Ehrlich. He was raised in Praga, a suburb of Warsaw, in comfortable circumstances in a traditional yet enlightened Jewish household. In early childhood Friedlaender acquired an almost verbatim knowledge of the Hebrew Bible as well as of the corpus of rabbinic literature. Studying with a private tutor, he also mastered the German language and its literary classics....
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Gibbs, Josiah Willard (1790-1861), philologist
Benjamin R. Foster
Gibbs, Josiah Willard (30 April 1790–25 March 1861), philologist, was born in Salem, Massachusetts, the son of Henry Gibbs, a merchant, and Mercy Prescott. He graduated from Yale College in 1809 and then taught school in Salem. In 1811 he was appointed a tutor at Yale. During this time he was also studying theology; he received his license to preach in 1814. In 1815 he went to Andover Theological Seminary, where he resided in the home of ...
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Haldeman, Samuel Stehman (1812-1880), naturalist and philologist
W. Conner Sorensen
Haldeman, Samuel Stehman (12 August 1812–10 September 1880), naturalist and philologist, was born at Locust Grove, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the son of Henry Haldeman, a businessman, and Frances Stehman (her name and Samuel’s middle name are sometimes spelled Steman or Stedman). Haldeman’s Swiss ancestors had acquired considerable property in the Susquehanna Valley and had occupied positions of prestige in Pennsylvania. His grandfather John B. Haldeman had been elected to the general assembly of Pennsylvania, and his great-great-grandfather Jacob Haldeman had been a member of the colony’s Committee of Safety during the Revolution. His great-grand-uncle Sir Frederick Haldimand had served as commander in chief of the British forces in Canada....
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Krapp, George Philip (1872-1934), philologist and man of letters
Robert Martin Adams
Krapp, George Philip (01 September 1872–21 April 1934), philologist and man of letters, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, the second son of Martin Krapp and Louisa Addams. His father, a veteran of the Union armies, had been captured at Gettysburg and was mustered out by President ...
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Leonard, William Ellery (1876-1944), philologist, poet, and dramatist
Gay Wilson Allen
Leonard, William Ellery (25 January 1876–02 May 1944), philologist, poet, and dramatist, was born in Plainfield, New Jersey, the son of the Reverend William James Leonard and Martha Whitcomb. Named after the famous Unitarian minister William Ellery Channing (1780–1842), he dropped Channing by the time he reached college. Reverend Leonard, himself a native of Plainfield, had been a Baptist minister in Chicago but suddenly resigned his pastorate when he could no longer accept the religious beliefs of his congregation. At the time of Ellery’s birth he was editor of the ...
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Manly, John Matthews (1865-1940), philologist and educator
A. James Fuller
Manly, John Matthews (02 September 1865–02 April 1940), philologist and educator, was born in Sumter County, Alabama, the son of the Reverend Charles Manly, a Baptist minister and educator, and Mary Esther Hellen Matthews. The Manlys were a prominent southern family, and John Matthews’s grandfather, Basil Manly, his uncle, ...
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Marden, Charles Carroll (1867-1932), philologist and university professor
Edward L. Lach, Jr.
Marden, Charles Carroll (21 December 1867–11 May 1932), philologist and university professor, was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Jesse Marden and Anna Maria Brice. After completing his secondary education at Baltimore’s City College high school, Marden remained in his hometown and entered Johns Hopkins University, from which he received an A.B. in 1889. Following graduation, he moved to Norfolk, Virginia, where he served as instructor in modern languages at Norfolk Academy during the academic year of 1889–1890. After spending the following year in Ann Arbor as an instructor in French at the University of Michigan, he returned to Johns Hopkins and entered graduate school. Under the mentorship of ...
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Morini, Austin M. (1826-1909), Catholic priest, philologist, and historian
Conrad M. Borntrager
Morini, Austin M. (04 March 1826–29 July 1909), Catholic priest, philologist, and historian, was born John Morini in Florence, Italy, the son of Paul Morini, a goldsmith and designer, and Anna Bartolini, an embroiderer. He received his early education at the school of the Piarist Fathers in Florence; then in 1844, at the age of eighteen, he entered the novitiate of the Servite Friars (Servants of Mary) at SS. Annunziata church in Florence. At that time his name was changed to Austin. He completed his philosophical and theological training at SS. Annunziata and was ordained to the priesthood on 1 May 1850. He received the degree of master of theology in 1856....
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Otis, Brooks (1908-1977), classical philologist and literary critic
E. Christian Kopff
Otis, Brooks (10 June 1908–26 July 1977), classical philologist and literary critic, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Edward Otis, a doctor, and Marion Faxon. Like his father before him, Otis attended Phillips Exeter Academy, from which he graduated in 1925, and proceeded to Harvard (B.A., 1929). He received his M.A. in Latin from Harvard in 1930 and taught classical languages for two years (1930–1932) at Earlham College in Indiana. He returned to Harvard, where he earned his Ph.D. in classical philology in 1935 with a dissertation written in Latin under the direction of ...
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Robinson, Edward (1794-1863), biblical scholar
Benjamin R. Foster
Robinson, Edward (10 April 1794–27 January 1863), biblical scholar, was born in Southington, Connecticut, the son of William Robinson, a clergyman, and Elisabeth Norton. He graduated from Hamilton College in 1816. After a year reading law at Hudson, New York, at the office of James Strong, he returned to Hamilton in 1818 as a tutor in Greek and mathematics. There he married Eliza Kirkland; they had no children. After her death in 1819, Robinson spent three years farming and in private study, preparing an edition of parts of the Iliad ( ...
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Scott, John Adams (1867-1947), classical philologist
E. Christian Kopff
Scott, John Adams (15 September 1867–27 October 1947), classical philologist, was born in Fletcher, McLean County, Illinois, the son of James Sterling Scott and Henrietta P. Sutton, farmers. Scott’s father was sickly, and by the time Scott was thirteen he and his brother ...
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Seymour, Thomas Day (1848-1907), classical philologist
E. Christian Kopff
Seymour, Thomas Day (01 April 1848–31 December 1907), classical philologist, was born in Hudson, Ohio, the son of Nathan Perkins Seymour, a professor of Greek and Latin at Western Reserve University, and Elizabeth Day. At age sixteen Seymour was sent to Hartford to work for his uncle Thomas Seymour, the editor of the ...
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Smith, Logan Pearsall (1865-1946), essayist, philologist, and critic
Robert L. Gale
Smith, Logan Pearsall (18 October 1865–02 March 1946), essayist, philologist, and critic, was born Lloyd Logan Pearsall Smith in Millville, New Jersey, the son of Robert Pearsall Smith, a wealthy partner in the family glass-bottle factory, and Hannah Whitall Smith. Both parents were Quakers but later became influential revivalist preachers and tract writers. In 1868 the family moved to Philadelphia and in 1872 vacationed in England. Smith’s education was sporadic but excellent: he attended the Friends’ William Penn Charter School, Philadelphia (1880–1881), Haverford College (1881–1884), and Harvard University (1884–1885). In 1885, when he was a guest at his older sister Mary’s wedding ceremony in Oxford, England, he resolved to take classes there eventually. After a year of study at Berlin University and an unhappy year in the family business, he persuaded his father in 1887 to give him enough money so that he could live simply and never have to work again. His father settled $25,000 on him, and he entered Balliol College, Oxford, in 1888. That same year his family moved permanently to a country house outside London, where visitors included ...
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