Mortimer Lamson Earle, Ph. D. (1864–1905) was an American classical scholar.

Biography

He was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

on October 14, 1864, the only child of Mortimer Lent Earle and Mercy Josephine Allen. He received his early education from Ashland Public School in East Orange, New Jersey, and through private tutors, and was educated at

Columbia College of Columbia University Columbia College is the oldest undergraduate college of Columbia University, situated on the university's main campus in Morningside Heights in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded by the Church of England in 1754 as King's ...

, receiving his doctorate from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in 1889. He studied at the

University of Bonn The Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (german: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn) is a public research university located in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the ( en, Rhine ...

and the

American School of Classical Studies at Athens , native_name_lang = Greek , image = American School of Classical Studies at Athens.jpg , image_size = , image_alt = , caption = The ASCSA main building as seen from Mount Lykavittos , latin_name = , other_name = , former_name = , m ...

in the period from 1887 to 1889. At the latter in 1887 he was placed in charge of the excavations of the site of ancient Sikyon by Professor Augustus C. Merriam of Columbia. On June 4, 1892, he married Ethel Deodata Woodward (1864–1940). They had no children. From 1889 to 1895 he was instructor in Greek at

Barnard College Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...

and Columbia University. From 1895 to 1898 he served as associate professor in Greek and Latin at

Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh: ) is a women's liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Founded as a Quaker institution in 1885, Bryn Mawr is one of the Seven Sister colleges, a group of elite, historically women's colleges in the United ...

, before returning to Barnard in 1898 just as it was about to become part of Columbia University. He was appointed professor of classical philology in 1899. In 1890 he was appointed a member of the American Philological Association and served as vice-president from 1902 until his untimely death in 1905. He edited

Euripides Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars a ...

' ''

Alcestis Alcestis (; Ancient Greek: Ἄλκηστις, ') or Alceste, was a princess in Greek mythology, known for her love of her husband. Her life story was told by pseudo-Apollodorus in his '' Bibliotheca'', and a version of her death and return from t ...

'' (1895);

Sophocles Sophocles (; grc, Σοφοκλῆς, , Sophoklễs; 497/6 – winter 406/5 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. is one of three ancient Greek tragedians, at least one of whose plays has survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or c ...

' '' Œdipus Tyrannus'' (1900); and Euripides' ''

Medea In Greek mythology, Medea (; grc, Μήδεια, ''Mēdeia'', perhaps implying "planner / schemer") is the daughter of King Aeëtes of Colchis, a niece of Circe and the granddaughter of the sun god Helios. Medea figures in the myth of Jason an ...

'' (1904). His numerous contributions to learned periodicals were collected in ''The Classical Papers of Mortimer Lamson Earle, with a Memoir'' (New York, 1912). He died on September 26, 1905, in New York from typhoid fever contracted whilst in Sicily. After his death, his students and friends gave his library to his alma mater, Columbia University.

Notes

References

*Ashmore, Sidney G. (1912)
"Mortimer Lamson Earle"
i
''The Classical Papers of Mortimer Lamson Earle, with a Memoir''
Columbia University Press.

External links

*
Finding aid to the Mortimer Lamson Earle papers at Columbia University
1864 births 1905 deaths Columbia College (New York) alumni American classical scholars Educators from New York City Classical scholars of Columbia University Scholars of ancient Greek literature 19th-century American educators {{classical-scholar-stub