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Henry Charles Lea (September 19, 1825 – October 24, 1909) was an American publisher, civic activist, philanthropist and historian from
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
. He took over the family publishing business from his father, Isaac Lea, and implemented several medical and scientific publications. The business operated under various names including Lea Brothers & Co., Lea & Febiger and Blanchard & Lea until his sons took over the business in 1880. He promoted health projects including the Lea Laboratory of Hygiene at the
University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universit ...
and the Pennsylvania Epileptic Hospital and Colony Farm. He organized the Citizens' Municipal Reform Association of Philadelphia to fight corruption in city government. He was a founding member of the Union League of Philadelphia during the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by state ...
. He managed publications and supported their efforts for recruitment of Union soldiers including African-Americans. He helped found the National Republican League to prevent a third U.S. presidential term for Ulysses S. Grant. Lea wrote multiple books focused on church history, especially the Spanish Inquisition. He received honorary degrees from Harvard University, Princeton, University of Geisesen, University of Moscow and University of Pennsylvania. He was a member of multiple learned societies and served as president of the American Historical Association in 1903.


Early life and education

Lea was born on September 19, 1825, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Isaac Lea and Frances Anne Carey. His father was a publisher and amateur scientist. He received his education through private tutors including the mathematician
Eugenius Nulty Eugenius Nulty (1790 – July 3, 1871) was an Irish born American mathematician of the 19th century. He served on the faculty of Dickinson College from 1814 to 1816, and later taught and tutored prominent Philadelphians, including the brothers Ma ...
. Lea received a classical education including the trivium (grammar, logic and rhetoric), quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, music and celestial navigation). classical languages and history. Nulty immersed Lea in a single subject for long periods to encourage its complete mastery. Nulty encouraged him to master far more difficult lessons than usually expected of a student his age. Lea also demonstrated a facility for languages and analytical thought. In 1832, he studied for a brief time at a school in Paris, France. Lea also worked in the Booth & Boy chemical laboratory and published his first paper, at age 13, on
manganese Manganese is a chemical element with the symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese is a transition metal with a multifaceted array of industrial alloy u ...
salts. Lea received an LLD from
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
and the
University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universit ...
. Lea followed his father's interest in natural history and wrote several papers on descriptive conchology. He discovered and named 133 new species of mollusks and 2 new
genera Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial ...
. He also displayed drawing talent and illustrated his own early articles about fossil shells that he had collected. His drawings were also used for the engravings illustrating his father's revision of the ''Synopsis of the Naiades'' in 1838. Lea developed an interest in poetry and at his mother's suggestion, translated Greek poets and composed original verse. Later, he often wrote satirical parodies of popular songs about politics.


Career


Publisher

In 1843, Lea joined his father's publishing business as a clerk and became a junior partner in 1851. In 1847, after working in the family publishing firm for four years, Lea suffered a nervous breakdown and abandoned his intellectual and scientific work for eleven years. Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, one of the country's most prominent doctors in the field of nervous disorders, treated Lea and became a family friend. During his convalescence, Lea began reading
French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
memoirs of the medieval period. They kindled his interest in medieval history and changed his career course from scientist to historian. Lea focused the firm on medical and scientific publications. The company operated under several names including Lea Brothers & Co., Lea & Febinger and Blanchard & Lea in 1865. He continued to work with the firm until 1880 when his sons took over the business.


Civic activism and philanthropy

In 1844, Lea stood guard with a musket for two days and two nights in front of a catholic church to prevent property damage during the
Philadelphia nativist riots The Philadelphia nativist riots (also known as the Philadelphia Prayer Riots, the Bible Riots and the Native American Riots) were a series of riots that took place on May 68 and July 67, 1844, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States and the ...
. He was a member of the Union League of Philadelphia at its inception in 1862 and served on the Board of Directors, the Military Committee and the Committee of Publications. He wrote many of the pamphlets published by the organization. In 1863 Lea was appointed one of the Bounty Commissioners under the Enrollment Act and served until 1865, working closely with Provost Marshal General
James B. Fry James Barnet Fry (February 22, 1827 – July 11, 1894) was an American soldier and prolific author of historical books. Family and Early career Fry, who was born in Carrollton, Illinois, was the first child of General Jacob G. Fry (September 2 ...
accounting for the city's quotas of enlisted men. He was also involved with recruiting African American regiments to fight in the Union army. He served as president of the Philadelphia branch of the
American Social Science Association In 1865, at Boston, Massachusetts, a society for the study of social questions was organized and given the name American Social Science Association. The group grew to where its membership totaled about 1,000 persons. About 30 corresponding members ...
and as a member of the Industrial League. In 1871, he organized the Citizens' Municipal Reform Association of Philadelphia which focused on fighting corruption in city government. He served on the board of directors for the Philadelphia Library. Outspoken about public works and health projects in Philadelphia, Lea founded the Lea Laboratory of Hygiene at the
University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universit ...
. He strongly opposed the building of City Hall at the Penn Square location at the intersection of Broad Street and Market Street (then known as High Street) where it now stands, preferring instead that it be built in Washington Square, near Independence Hall. Lea believed that the project cost too much, and was angered by the political corruption involved in the awarding of contracts and purchase of building materials. Lea planned and held a large public meeting to recruit support for his alternative to the Penn Square project. In 1870, he helped initiate the National Republican League to prevent Ulysses S. Grant's third term as president of the United States. The National Republican League chose Lea as its president in 1880 (the year he retired from his publishing business) and five years later, Lea served as president of the Association of Republicans and Independents. In 1891 he helped found "The Reform Political League of Pennsylvania", with Herbert Welsh as president, himself and Justus C. Strawbridge as vice-presidents, and Charles E. Richardson as secretary. Lea joined with others in 1884 and filed a lawsuit to oppose building a large slaughterhouse on the Schuylkill River at Thirtieth and Spruce streets on land owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, citing the pollution of the river, the stench, and devaluation of properties near the plant. He also opposed the construction of the Market Street elevated train, over properties he owned on Market Street, as well as building the "boulevard" from City Hall northwest to Fairmount Park, where the Philadelphia Museum of Art was later built. In 1888, Lea doubled the size of the reading rooms and book shelves at the Philadelphia Library. In 1897, he built several buildings for the Pennsylvania Epileptic Hospital and Colony Farm in Oakbourne, Pennsylvania.


Historian

Lea focused on church history in the later
Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
, and on institutional, legal, and ecclesiastical history, as well as magic and witchcraft. He also did significant work on the history of the Italian city-states. His active writing career on historical subjects spanned more than fifty years, during which Lea published ten books and numerous articles. His literary reputation rests largely on those books. Highly disciplined work habits (and the ability to purchase manuscripts in Europe and Latin America and have them shipped to Philadelphia) led Lea to continue writing despite headaches and eye problems. His productivity increased during his final twenty-five years after he retired as a publisher and built an extension to his house at 2000 Walnut Street, for his extensive manuscript collection. Lea became an authority on the Spanish Inquisition, and his multi-volume work was considered groundbreaking, although opinionated, and some criticized him for
anti-Catholic Anti-Catholicism is hostility towards Catholics or opposition to the Catholic Church, its clergy, and/or its adherents. At various points after the Reformation, some majority Protestant states, including England, Prussia, Scotland, and ...
bias. Lea received honorary degrees from universities including Harvard, Princeton and the
University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universit ...
in the United States, and overseas institutions such as the University of Giessen and the University of Moscow. His study of the Inquisition was also criticized for anti-Spanish bias, which Julián Juderías in 1914 termed the 'leyenda negra' (a/k/a Black legend). He was a member of multiple historical societies including the Royal Academy of Bavaria, the Comenius-Gesellschaft of Berlin, the Reale Accademia dei Lincei of Rome, the Societa Internazionale di Studi Francescani of Assissi, the Reale Societa Roman della Storia Patria, the Royal Society of Arts in London, the Royal Society of Antiquities in Scotland, the Jewish Historical Society of England and a corresponding fellow of the British Academy. Lea became a member of the newly formed '' American Historical Association'' in 1884, contributed several articles to its '' American Historical Review'', and was elected its president in 1903. He was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1888. When the second annual meeting of the newly formed American Folklore Society was held in Philadelphia in 1889, Lea met with some of the founders, sent an article for publication in the Society's journal, and became the first life-member of the organization.


Personal life

His father, Isaac Lea (1792–1886) was a distinguished naturalist and member of the ''
American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communi ...
'', and
publisher Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...
. Isaac Lea was descended from a Philadelphia
Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...
family, and had been born in
Wilmington, Delaware Wilmington (Lenape: ''Paxahakink /'' ''Pakehakink)'' is the largest city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish settlement in North America. It lies at the confluence of the Christin ...
. On March 8, 1821, Isaac married Frances Anne Carey (1799–1873), daughter of Mathew Carey, the Philadelphia publisher whose business he ultimately took over. On May 27, 1850, Henry Charles Lea married his first cousin and orphan Anna Caroline Jaudon (1824–1912). Her father, merchant William Latta Jaubon (1798–1832) of
Bucks County, Pennsylvania Bucks County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 646,538, making it the fourth-most populous county in Pennsylvania. Its county seat is Doylestown. The county is named after the English ...
had died in
Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state lin ...
when she was a child, followed four years later by her mother, Susan Gibson Lea Jaudon (1799–1836). The Jaudons were a wealthy
Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Bez ...
family from Soubise,
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, and after the
Edict of Nantes The Edict of Nantes () was signed in April 1598 by King Henry IV and granted the Calvinist Protestants of France, also known as Huguenots, substantial rights in the nation, which was in essence completely Catholic. In the edict, Henry aim ...
Peter Jaudon emigrated to Bucks County (and his family became Presbyterians), and Elie Jaudon emigrated to South Carolina. Perhaps the most noteworthy members were the teacher Daniel Jaudon (1767–1826, Anna Caroline's grandfather) and the financier Samuel Jaudon. Two years later Lea's brother Matthew Carey Lea married her sister Elizabeth (1827–1881), whose husband merchant William Bakewell had died in Cincinnati in 1850, leaving her with a young daughter. The Leas had three sons (who succeeded their father in the publishing business) and a daughter: Francis Henry Lea (1851–1902), Charles Matthew (1853–1886), Anna (Nina) Lea (1855–1927) and Arthur Henry Lea (1859–1939). In 1878, Lea became seriously ill and was almost nearly blind. He was invalid from 1880 to 1884 and used that time to revisit his literary interests.


Death and legacy

Lea died of pneumonia on October 24, 1909, in Philadelphia and was buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery. In 1914, the
Henry C. Lea Elementary School Henry C. Lea Elementary School is an historic elementary school which is located in the Walnut Hill neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is part of the School District of Philadelphia and was named after the publisher, civic activist an ...
in Philadelphia was named in his honor. His personal collection of purchased manuscripts and incunabula as well as other early printed books was bequeathed to the
University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universit ...
. In 1925, the university dedicated a library, which it named in his honor and which includes much of that personal collection of books and manuscripts. Since 1962, the collection has been located in the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center which is now a part of the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts. In 1933, Lea's son Arthur donated four Greek vases that belonged to his father to the
Penn Museum The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology—commonly known as the Penn Museum—is an archaeology and anthropology museum at the University of Pennsylvania. It is located on Penn's campus in the University City nei ...
.


Works


''Superstition and Force: Essays on the Wager of Law, the Wager of Battle, the Ordeal, Torture''
Henry C. Lea, 1866.
''Historical Sketch of Sacerdotal Celibacy,''
J.B. Lippincott & Co., 1867.
''Studies in Church History. The Rise of the Temporal Power - Benefit of clergy - Excommunication,''
Henry C. Lea, 1869.
''Translations and Other Rhymes,''
Privately Printed, 1882.
''A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages,''Vol. 2Vol. 3
The Macmillan Company, 1906 st Pub. New York, Harper & Brothers, 1887
''Chapters from the Religious History of Spain Connected with the Inquisition,''
Lea Brothers & Co., 1890.
''A Formulary of the Papal Penitentiary in the 17th Century,''
Lea Brothers & Co., 1892.
''The Absolution Formula of the Templars,''
The Knickerbocker Press, 1893.
''A History of Auricular Confession and Indulgences in the Latin Church,''Volume IIVolume III
Lea Brothers & Co., 1896.
''The Indian Policy of Spain,''
n.p., 1899.
''The Dead Hand; a Brief Sketch of the Relations between Church and State with Regard to Ecclesiastical Property and the Religious Orders,''
William J. Dornan, 1900.
''The Moriscos of Spain; their Conversion and Expulsion,''
Lea Brothers & Co., 1901.
''Léo Taxil, Diana Vaughan et l'Église Romaine: Histoire d'une mystification,''
Paris, France: Sociéte Nouvelle de Librairie et d'édition, 1901.
''Ethical Values in History,''
n.p., 1904.

1906–1907.
''The Inquisition in the Spanish Dependencies,''
The Macmillan Company, 1922
st Pub. 1908 ST, St, or St. may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Stanza, in poetry * Suicidal Tendencies, an American heavy metal/hardcore punk band * Star Trek, a science-fiction media franchise * Summa Theologica, a compendium of Catholic philosophy ...

''Memoir,''
Privately printed, 1910. * ''Materials Toward a History of Witchcraft,'' University of Pennsylvania Press, 1939.


Citations


Sources

* * *


Further reading

* Baumgarten, Paul Maria (1909)
''Henry Charles Lea's Historical Writings: A Critical Inquiry Into Their Method and Merit.''
New York: J.F. Wagner. * Bouquillon, Thomas (1891)
"Henry C. Lea as a Historian,"
''The American Catholic Quarterly Review'', Vol. XVI, pp. 131–158. * Bussy, R. Kenneth (1985).
Two Hundred Years of Publishing: A History of the Oldest Publishing Company in the United States, Lea & Febiger 1785–1985.
' Lea & Febiger. * Coulton, G.G. (1937). ''Sectarian History.'' Barnicotts. * O'Brien, John M. (1967). "Henry Charles Lea: The Historian as Reformer," ''American Quarterly'', Vol. XIX, No. 1, pp. 104–113. * Peters, Edward (1987). "Henry Charles Lea and the `Abode of Monsters'." In: ''The Spanish Inquisition and the Inquisitorial Mind'', edited by Angel Alcal, Atlantic Research Publications. * Tollebeek, Jo (2004). ''Writing the Inquisition in Europe and America: The Correspondence Between Henry Charles Lea and Paul Fredericq.'' Palais des Académies.


External links


Henry Charles Lea papers
Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lea, Henry Charles 1825 births 1909 deaths 19th-century American historians 19th-century American male writers 19th-century American philanthropists 19th-century American poets Academics and writers on the Spanish Inquisition American company founders American publishers (people) Burials at Laurel Hill Cemetery (Philadelphia) Corresponding Fellows of the British Academy Deaths from pneumonia in Pennsylvania Harvard University alumni Historians from Pennsylvania Members of the American Antiquarian Society Members of the American Philosophical Society Moscow State University alumni Presidents of the American Historical Association University of Giessen alumni University of Pennsylvania alumni Writers from Philadelphia