John Alsop Paine, Jr. (January 14, 1840 – July 24, 1912) was a Presbyterian minister, botanist, professor of natural history and German, archaeologist, and editor. He graduated in 1859 from

Hamilton College Hamilton College is a private liberal arts college in Clinton, Oneida County, New York. It was founded as Hamilton-Oneida Academy in 1793 and was chartered as Hamilton College in 1812 in honor of inaugural trustee Alexander Hamilton, following ...

with B.A. and in 1862 from

Andover Seminary Andover Newton Theological School (ANTS) was a graduate school and seminary in Newton, Massachusetts. Affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA and the United Church of Christ. It was the product of a merger between Andover Theological ...

with

M.Div. For graduate-level theological institutions, the Master of Divinity (MDiv, ''magister divinitatis'' in Latin) is the first professional degree of the pastoral profession in North America. It is the most common academic degree in seminaries and di ...

From 1862 to 1865 he lived in

Utica, New York Utica () is a Administrative divisions of New York, city in the Mohawk Valley and the county seat of Oneida County, New York, United States. The List of cities in New York, tenth-most-populous city in New York State, its population was 65,283 ...

and worked as a botanist for the board of regents of the

University of the State of New York The University of the State of New York (USNY, ) is the state of New York (state), New York's governmental umbrella organization for both public and private institutions in New York State. The "university" is not an educational institution: it i ...

. From 1865 to 1866 he studied at the

Sheffield Scientific School Sheffield Scientific School was founded in 1847 as a school of Yale College in New Haven, Connecticut, for instruction in science and engineering. Originally named the Yale Scientific School, it was renamed in 1861 in honor of Joseph E. Sheffield, ...

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

and at the

Columbia School of Mines The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science (popularly known as SEAS or Columbia Engineering; previously known as Columbia School of Mines) is the engineering and applied science school of Columbia University. It was founded as th ...

.p. 542
/ref> In 1867 he was ordained a Presbyterian minister at Andover Seminary. After his ordination, from 1867 to 1869 he was a professor of natural science at the Christian missionary institution

Robert College The American Robert College of Istanbul ( tr, İstanbul Özel Amerikan Robert Lisesi or ), often shortened to Robert, or RC, is a Selective school, highly selective, Independent school, independent, mixed-sex education, co-educational Secondary ...

in Istanbul. From 1869 to 1870 he studied at the

University of Halle Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (german: Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg), also referred to as MLU, is a public, research-oriented university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg and the largest and oldest university i ...

and at

Leipzig University Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December ...

. From 1870 to 1871 Paine taught natural history and German at

Lake Forest University Lake Forest College is a private liberal arts college in Lake Forest, Illinois. Founded in 1857 as Lind University by a group of Presbyterian ministers, the college has been coeducational since 1876 and an undergraduate-focused liberal arts inst ...

in Illinois. From 1871 to 1872 he was an associate editor for ''The Independent''. From 1872 to 1874 he was an archaeologist and naturalist with the American Palestine Exploration Society working in the Vilayet of Syria in the region immediately to the east of the

Jordan River The Jordan River or River Jordan ( ar, نَهْر الْأُرْدُنّ, ''Nahr al-ʾUrdunn'', he, נְהַר הַיַּרְדֵּן, ''Nəhar hayYardēn''; syc, ܢܗܪܐ ܕܝܘܪܕܢܢ ''Nahrāʾ Yurdnan''), also known as ''Nahr Al-Shariea ...

and the

Dead Sea The Dead Sea ( he, יַם הַמֶּלַח, ''Yam hamMelaḥ''; ar, اَلْبَحْرُ الْمَيْتُ, ''Āl-Baḥrū l-Maytū''), also known by other names, is a salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Bank ...

. In 1874 he received an honorary doctorate from Hamilton College in recognition of his research in Palestine. He married the widow Emma Sophia Newton ''

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

'' Gillette in

Gloversville, New York Gloversville is a city in the Mohawk Valley region of Upstate New York, and the most populous city in Fulton County, New York, Fulton County. Gloversville was once the hub of the United States' glovemaking industry, with over two hundred manufac ...

in October 1877. Paine published several papers, from 1885 to 1889, in the

Journal of the American Oriental Society The ''Journal of the American Oriental Society'' is a quarterly academic journal published by the American Oriental Society The American Oriental Society was chartered under the laws of Massachusetts on September 7, 1842. It is one of the olde ...

. He retired from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in February 1906. Upon his death, at his home in

Tarrytown, New York Tarrytown is a village in the town of Greenburgh in Westchester County, New York. It is located on the eastern bank of the Hudson River, approximately north of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, and is served by a stop on the Metro-North ...

, he was survived by his widow. George Johnson Newton (born 1866) was his stepson. John Alsop Paine, Sr. (1795–1871) was a physician and president of the Essex County Medical Society from 1838 to 1841.

Selected publications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paine, John Alsop 1840 births 1912 deaths Writers from Newark, New Jersey Hamilton College (New York) alumni Andover Newton Theological School alumni Presbyterian ministers 19th-century American botanists 20th-century American botanists Columbia School of Mines alumni