Cornelius Conway Felton

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Cornelius Conway Felton
Five Harvard University presidents sit in the order in which they held office: Josiah Quincy , Edward Everett , Jared Sparks , James Walker, and Cornelius Conway Felton.

Cornelius Conway Felton (born November 6, 1807 in West Newbury , Massachusetts , † February 26, 1862 in Chester , Pennsylvania ) was an American literary scholar and professor who was President of Harvard University from 1860 until his death .

Life

After attending school, Felton began studying at Harvard College, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in 1827 . After teaching at Livingstone High School in Geneseo for two years , he became a tutor at Harvard College in 1829 , where he also earned a Master of Arts (MA) in 1830 .

In 1832 he was first professor of Greek before he took over the Eliot professorship for Greek literature at Harvard University in 1834 and taught there until his death.

In addition to his many years of teaching activity, Felton published numerous classical texts, whereby his comments on the text edition of the Iliad published by Friedrich August Wolf deserve special mention. His other important works include translations of Wolfgang Menzel's Die deutsche Literatur ( German Literature , 1840), of Salomon Munk's Metrics of the Greeks and Romans ( Metres of the Greeks and Romans , 1844) and of Arnold Henri Guyot's Earth and Man ( Earth and Man , 1849). He also published the American edition of William Smith's History of Greece in 1855 .

In 1844 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . In 1860, Felton, who was also the administrator of the Smithsonian Institution , succeeded James Walker as President of Harvard University and held that office until his death. Successor was then Thomas Hill .

Posthumously , Familiar Letters from Europe was published in 1865 and the two-volume textbook Greece, Ancient and Modern , a collection of 49 lectures at the Lowell Institute, was published in 1867 .

His younger brothers were the engineer and railroad manager Samuel Morse Felton, Sr., and the lawyer and politician John B. Felton. His nephew, Samuel Morse Felton, Jr., was also a railroad manager and, during World War I, director of military railroading with the rank of brigadier general .

Publications

  • German Literature , 1840
  • Metres of the Greeks and Romans , 1844
  • Earth and Man , 1849
  • History of Greece. Earliest times to the Roman conquest, with supplementary chapters on the history of literature and art , 1855
  • Familiar Lettres from Europe , 1865
  • Greece, Ancient and Modern , 1867

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Felton, Cornelius Conway
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American literary scholar
DATE OF BIRTH November 6, 1807
PLACE OF BIRTH West Newbury , Massachusetts
DATE OF DEATH February 26, 1862
Place of death Chester , Pennsylvania