John Addison Porter (March 15, 1822 – August 25, 1866) was an American

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

and

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

. He is the namesake of the

John Addison Porter Prize The John Addison Porter Prize is a literary award given annually by Yale University to the best work of scholarship in any field "where it is possible, through original effort, to gather and relate facts or principles, or both, and to present the ...

and was a founder of the

Scroll and Key The Scroll and Key Society is a secret society, founded in 1842 at Yale University, in New Haven, Connecticut. It is one of the oldest Yale secret societies and reputedly the wealthiest. The society is one of the reputed "Big Three" societies ...

senior society of Yale University.

Academic life

Porter was born in Catskill, New York.''Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University'', Yale University, 1866-7, New Haven, p. 246. Porter graduated from

Yale College Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...

in 1842. At Yale, he, along with

William Kingsley William Kingsley, D.D. was an Anglican priest in the 17th century. Lever was born in London and educated at Magdalen College, Oxford. He was Archdeacon of Canterbury The Archdeacon of Canterbury is a senior office-holder in the Diocese of ...

, publisher of '' The New Englander'', and eleven others, founded the senior or secret society Scroll and Key and incorporated the Kingsley Trust Association in 1841. He and moved to Philadelphia for further study. In 1844 he became a professor at

Delaware College The University of Delaware (colloquially UD or Delaware) is a public land-grant research university located in Newark, Delaware. UD is the largest university in Delaware. It offers three associate's programs, 148 bachelor's programs, 121 mas ...

and remained there until 1847 when he moved to

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

to study at the

University of Giessen University of Giessen, official name Justus Liebig University Giessen (german: Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen), is a large public research university in Giessen, Hesse, Germany. It is named after its most famous faculty member, Justus von ...

under

Justus von Liebig Justus Freiherr von Liebig (12 May 1803 – 20 April 1873) was a German scientist who made major contributions to agricultural and biological chemistry, and is considered one of the principal founders of organic chemistry. As a professor at t ...

. In 1850 he returned to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and became a professor at

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

. He left in 1852 to take the place of the retiring Professor

John Pitkin Norton John Pitkin Norton (July 19, 1822 – September 5, 1852) was an educator, agricultural chemist, and author. Biography Norton was born in Albany, New York, in 1822, where his father John Treadwell Norton, a successful farmer and engineer, owned a ...

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, ...

(then Yale Scientific School). He was the Professor of Analytical and Agricultural Chemistry from 1852 to 1856, and Professor of Organic Chemistry from 1856-1864. He remained at Yale until he had to resign for health reasons in 1864, two years before his death in New Haven. In 1872 the Kingsley Trust endowed at Yale a prize in his honor to be given annually.

Personal life

In 1855 he married Josephine Earl Sheffield, daughter of

Joseph E. Sheffield Joseph Earle Sheffield (June 19, 1793 – February 17, 1882) was an American railroad magnate and philanthropist. Sheffield was born in Southport, Connecticut, the son of Paul King Sheffield, a shipowner, and his wife Mabel (née Thorpe). H ...

, whose name was to eventually adorn the school where he was professor for 12 years. One of their sons was another

John Addison Porter John Addison Porter (March 15, 1822 – August 25, 1866) was an American professor of chemistry and physician. He is the namesake of the John Addison Porter Prize and was a founder of the Scroll and Key senior society of Yale University. Acad ...

, who became the first person to hold the title "Secretary to the President", when he served in that capacity to

William McKinley William McKinley (January 29, 1843September 14, 1901) was the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. As a politician he led a realignment that made his Republican Party largely dominant in ...

Works and Achievements

Literary works

* First book of chemistry and allied sciences. 1857 * Principles of chemistry. 1857, 1860, 1864, 1868 * First book of science. 1858 * Outlines of the first course of Yale agricultural lectures. 1860 * Selections from the Kalevala, the Great Finnish Epic. 1868 Porter was the first person to translate any part of the

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

national epic

Kalevala The ''Kalevala'' ( fi, Kalevala, ) is a 19th-century work of epic poetry compiled by Elias Lönnrot from Karelian and Finnish oral folklore and mythology, telling an epic story about the Creation of the Earth, describing the controversies and r ...

into

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

using the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

translation by

Franz Anton Schiefner Franz Anton Schiefner (June 18, 1817 – November 16, 1879) was a Baltic German linguist and tibetologist. Schiefner was born to a German-speaking family in Reval (Tallinn), Estonia, then part of Russian Empire. His father was a merchant who had e ...

(the same version used by

John Martin Crawford John Martin Crawford (March 29, 1962 – December 16, 2020) was a Canadian serial killer. Crawford was convicted of killing four women in Saskatchewan and Alberta, between 1981 and 1992. Crimes Crawford was sentenced in 1981 to ten years' impri ...

for his complete 1888 translation).

John Addison Porter Prize

The John Addison Porter Prize, established in 1872, is a prize at Yale University awarded annually to the best work of scholarship in any field "where it is possible, through original effort, to gather and relate facts or principles, or both, and to present the results in such a literary form as to make the product of general human interest."

References

External links

* Article from ''New Englander and Yale review. (Volume 27, Issue 103)'
On Porters early translation of parts of the Finnish epic, Kalevala
{{DEFAULTSORT:Porter, John 1822 births 1866 deaths Yale University alumni Brown University faculty Yale University faculty 19th-century American people 19th-century American chemists Sheffield Scientific School faculty American agronomists