John Elfreth Watkins was born in Ben Lomond, Va. , the son of Francis B. and Mary (Elfreth) Watkins. His father, a physician, was descended from Thomas Watkins who in the War of the Revolution organized a troop of cavalry; his mother, from Timothy Matlack of Philadelphia, the "fighting Quaker, " who was a delegate to the Continental Congress from 1780 to 1787.
After preparing for college at Treemount Seminary, Norristown, Pa. , Watkins entered Lafayette College, Easton, Pa. , from which he graduated as a civil engineer in 1871. He continued his studies as a non-resident student of Lafayette and received the degree of M. S. in 1874.
He joined the staff of the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company as a mining engineer. After a year with the Canal Company, he had entered the employ of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company as an assistant engineer of construction, with headquarters at the Meadow Shops in New Jersey. In 1873 he was disabled for field work by an accident which resulted in the loss of his right leg, and was later assigned to the Amboy division of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Within a few months he was made chief clerk of the Camden & Atlantic Railroad, but before the year was over he was reassigned to the Amboy division of the Pennsylvania system, which position he held until 1886. In 1884 he became associated with the United States National Museum at Washington, D. C. , as honorary curator of transportation, and two years later accepted a salaried position, to which he devoted all of his time for the succeeding six years, building up the technological collections pertaining to the transportation industry. In 1892 he resigned from the National Museum and returned to the Pennsylvania Railroad to prepare that company's exhibit for the World's Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago in 1893. At its close he took charge of the department of industrial arts (a direct outgrowth of the exposition) in the Field Museum, Chicago, but a year later (1895) he returned to Washington as curator of mechanical technology and superintendent of buildings of the National Museum, which positions he held until his death. In the course of his twenty years' direct and indirect association with the Museum, Watkins became an authority on the history of engineering and the mechanical arts. Among his bestknown publications were "The Beginnings of Engineering, " read before the American Society of Civil Engineers and published in its Transactions (vol. XXIV, 1891), The Development of the American Rail and Track as Illustrated by the Collection in the U. S. National Museum (1891), and The Log of the Savannah (1891), the last two published originally in the annual reports of the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution for 1889 and 1890. His most extensive literary undertaking was a compilation of the history of the Pennsylvania Railroad, 1845-96, the completion of which was interrupted by his death and which was never published. Aside from his official duties he was very active in 1891 in promoting the Patent Centennial Celebration, held in Washington.
He was an active member of a number of patriotic and other societies.
He was twice married: first, in 1873, to Helen Bryan of Mount Holly, N. J. ; second, January 16, 1886, to Margaret Virginia Gwynn of Philadelphia. At the time of his sudden death in New York City he was survived by his widow and five children, three of whom were of the first marriage.
