William Henry Carpenter (1853–1936) was an

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philologist, and provost for

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 ...

Biography

William Henry Carpenter was born in

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on July 15, 1853. He was educated at

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Johns Hopkins Johns Hopkins (May 19, 1795 – December 24, 1873) was an American merchant, investor, and philanthropist. Born on a plantation, he left his home to start a career at the age of 17, and settled in Baltimore, Maryland where he remained for most ...

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 ...

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

, and

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. He then became instructor in rhetoric and lecturer on North European literature at Cornell in 1883. At

, he was instructor of German and Scandinavian languages, 1883–89; assistant professor of Germanic languages and literature, 1889–90; adjunct professor, 1890–95; and in 1895 professor of German philology. In 1912 he became the provost of Columbia.''Columbia University in the City of New York Catalogue, 1914–1915''
New York: The University, p. 11. He was trustee and secretary of the

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. He was elected vice president of the Germanistic Society of America,''The Activities of the Germanistic Society of America, 1904-1910''
Publications of the Society, IV, New York: The Society, 1910, pp. 8, 22, 29, 30. and edited the ''Germanistic Society Quarterly''. He was a member of the Authors Club and Century Club of

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. Among his students in Germanics were linguist

Edward Sapir Edward Sapir (; January 26, 1884 – February 4, 1939) was an American Jewish anthropologist-linguist, who is widely considered to be one of the most important figures in the development of the discipline of linguistics in the United States. Sa ...

. He married Anna Morgan Douglass on July 2, 1884, and they had three children. William Henry Carpenter died in

Downingtown, Pennsylvania Downingtown is a borough in Chester County, Pennsylvania, west of Philadelphia. As of the 2020 census it had a population of 7,898. Downingtown was settled by European colonists in the early 18th century and has a number of historic buildings an ...

on November 25, 1936. He was buried at

Northwood Cemetery Northwood Cemetery is a cemetery located in the West Oak Lane neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It was established in 1878. Notable interments * George Bradley (1852–1931) Major League Baseball player. * Duke Esper (1 ...

Works

* ''Grundriss der neuisländischen Grammatik'' (1881) * ''Nikolasdrapa Halls Prest, An Icelandic Poem from A. D. 1400'' (1881) * ''Some Conditions of American Education'' (1911) He contributed to dictionaries and encyclopedias and to magazines and reviews.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Carpenter, William Henry 1853 births 1936 deaths American non-fiction writers American philologists Burials at Northwood Cemetery, Philadelphia Columbia University faculty Columbia University librarians