Henry James Anderson
| Henry James Anderson | |
|---|---|
| Born | February 6, 1799 New York, New York |
| Died | October 19, 1875 (aged 76) Lahore, India |
| Alma mater | Columbia College |
| Known for | Participation in the United States Dead Sea exploration expedition |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Astronomer, geologist and mathematician |
Henry James Anderson (February 6, 1799 – October 19, 1875) was an American scientist and educator who worked with the great-grandson of Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Dallas Bache. He became Knight Commander, President of the Particular Council of New York, and Head of the Supreme Council.
Biography
He was born in New York City, and graduated from Columbia College in 1818, he subsequently studied medicine at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York. He did not practice medicine for long however, instead devoting himself to scientific and literary pursuits. He was appointed professor of mathematics and astronomy at Columbia College in 1825, when he was twenty-six years old; he retained his chair until 1843.[1] Anderson was elected an Associate Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1831.[2]
He married Fanny Da Ponte, the daughter of Lorenzo Da Ponte, a collaborator of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. They had two children named Elbert Ellery and Edward Henry. Elbert Ellery married to Augusta Chauncey, granddaughter of Commodore Isaac Chauncey, and their son Peter Chauncey Anderson married to Mary Yale Ogden, of the Yale and Ogden families. She was the granddaughter of Olivia Yale, daughter of Colonel Braddam Yale, and was related to Edith Ogden, wife of Chicago Mayor Carter Harrison IV (himself a cousin of US President William Henry Harrison) and Aaron Ogden, the governor of New Jersey.[3]
From 1840 to 1844, Anderson remained briefly in Paris where he worked closely with the anti-Newtonian astronomer François Arago, Carl Friedrich Gauss, and Alexander Dallas Bache (Benjamin Franklin's great-grandson), who later established the "Magnetische Verein" (Magnetic Association).[4] In 1848 as a geologist, he accompanied the United States Dead Sea exploration expedition, commanded by Captain William F. Lynch.
His reports from the expedition, Geological Reconnaissance of Part of the Holy Land, were published by the United States government in 1848 and 1849. Under the aegis of the American Geographical and Statistical Society, Anderson circulated a petition urging the United States to promote Jewish colonization in Palestine, part of the Jewish restoration movement that flowered at the time.[5] He was a trustee of Columbia college from 1851 until his death and was also professor emeritus from 1866.[1]
Anderson converted to Catholicism in 1849; he was active in his new faith for the rest of his life. He was made president of the Particular Council of New York in 1856, and later the head of the Supreme Council in 1860. He donated land for Manhattan's St. Gabriel Church in 1859.[6] He visited Pope Pius IX in Rome several times, and was eventually made a Knight Commander of the order of St. Gregory the Great. He made a pilgrimage to Lourdes and Rome in 1875; afterwards, he travelled to Australia in order to observe a transit of Venus. He planned to return home by way of India, but, after mountain-climbing in the Himalayas, he died of a disease in Lahore on October 19, at age 76.
He is buried in a vault under the Church of the Madonna in Fort Lee, New Jersey, a church in whose construction he had been involved.
From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia
Henry James Anderson, scientist and educator, b. in New York City, 6 February, 1799; d. at Lahore, India, 19 October, 1875. He graduated at Columbia College in 1818, and afterwards studied medicine at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York. He did not practise long, but devoted himself to scientific and literary pursuits. When twenty-six years old he was appointed professor of mathematics and astronomy in Columbia College. He retained this chair for twenty-five years, and in 1866 became emeritus professor. In 1848 he accompanied as geologist, the United States Dead Sea exploration expedition commanded by Captain William F. Lynch, U. S. N. The following year, while abroad, he became a convert to the Catholic Faith and was ever after one of its most zealous adherents. He joined the St. Vincent de Paul Society, and when the Particular Council of New York was instituted in 1856 he was made its president. When the Supreme Council was organized in 1860, he was chosen its head. To his example, influence, and labours the Society in New York City is greatly indebted for its subsequent success. The New York Catholic Protectory was founded and built under his inspiration. Pope Pius IX received him in Rome several times, and made him a Knight Commander of the Order of St. Gregory the Great in recognition of his merits and zeal for religion. He was organizer and president of the Catholic Union, having for its special objects the defence of the rights of the Holy See, and the promotion of the Faith. In the Spring of 1875 he went to Lourdes and Rome as a pilgrim, and later on travelled to Australia, at his own expense, to observe the transit of Venus. On his homeward journey, by way of India, where he accomplished an ascent of one of the Himalayan peaks, he was, soon after reaching Lahore, stricken with a malignant disease which proved fatal. His body was brought to New York, and buried 19 March, 1876, in a vault under the Church of the Madonna, which he had been instrumental in building, at Fort Lee, New Jereey. His requiem was sung in St. Patrick's Cathedral, and Cardinal McCloskey, in the sermon, said: "I remember to have heard from the lips of a distinguished Oxford scholar that he had never met a man of greater learning tempered with such humility." His principal writings were early contributions to the New York "Quarterly Review" and to mathematical journals, and in 1848 and 1849 two geological reports by him on the Dead Sea Expedition, "Geological Reconnaissance of Part of the Holy Land," were published by the U. S. government.
References
- Back to citation occurrence 1.0 Back to citation occurrence 1.1 "Anderson, Henry James". The Biographical Dictionary of America. Vol. 1. 1906. p. 108.
- Back to citation "Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter A" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved April 18, 2011.
- Back to citation Russo, Joseph Louis (1922). Lorenzo Da Ponte: Poet and Adventurer. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 118. ISBN 978-0598556295. Retrieved December 8, 2023; Social Register, New York, 1896; Wheeler, William Ogden (1907). "The Ogden Family in America and Their English Ancestry". J. B. Lippincott Company Philadelphia. pp. 444–446; Yale, Rodney Horace (1908). "Yale genealogy and history of Wales. The British kings and princes. Life of Owen Glyndwr. Biographies of Governor Elihu Yale". Milburn and Scott company. pp. 348–349.
- Back to citation Meredith, Mark. "Henry James Anderson (1799–1875)". House Histree. Retrieved December 8, 2023.
- Back to citation Oren, Michael B. (2007). Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. pp. 140–141. ISBN 978-0-393-05826-0.
- Back to citation Shea, John Gilmary, ed. (1878). "Church of Saint Gabriel". The Catholic Churches of New York City. New York: Lawrence G. Goulding & Co. pp. 312–313. OCLC 2524004.
Bibliography
- Meehan, Thomas Francis (1907). "Henry James Anderson". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company.