John Wright

February 4, 1852 (age 55)

Urmia, Iran

After serving at Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College (later Ohio State University) as assistant professor of ancient languages and literature, he spent two years in Leipzig, where he devoted himself chiefly to Sanskrit and classical philology, and returned to become associate professor of Greek at Dartmouth (1878 - 1886). From Dartmouth he was called to the Johns Hopkins University as professor of classical philology; he served also as dean of the collegiate board. A witty speaker, he addressed the National Education Association in 1882 on "The Place of Original Research in College Education" and the New Hampshire Teachers' Association in 1884 on "The Greek Question. " At Baltimore in 1886 he spoke on "The College in the University and Classical Philology in the College. " In 1886 he published a translation of Maxime Collignon's Manuel d'Archéologie Grecque. In 1887 he accepted a professorship of Greek at Harvard. At Harvard he originated and conducted courses in classical archaeology and in Greek history, until the establishment of separate chairs in those subjects. His researches in Greek history led him to a correct chronology of the political and economic disturbances in Athens at the close of the seventh century B. C. before the discovery of Aristotle's Constitution of the Athenians confirmed his results; unfortunately these were delayed in print until 1892, when his article on "The Date of Cylon" was published. On the publication of the recently discovered Mimes of Herodas, Wright made important contributions to the understanding of the text in his Herondaea (1893). In 1894, he became a president of the American Philological Association. His wide experience with students from different parts of the country fitted him eminently for the post of dean of the Harvard Graduate School, which he filled from 1895. Versed in epigraphy as well as in paleography, he issued in 1896 a monograph on The Origin of Sigma Lunatum. He was coëditor of the Classical Review (1889 - 1906), the Classical Quarterly (1907), Twentieth Century Textbooks (1900), and editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Archaeology (1897 - 1906). In 1902 he assumed supervision of A History of All Nations, in twenty-four volumes. He also edited Masterpieces of Greek Literature (1902), and in 1904 addressed the Congress of Arts and Sciences at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis on Present Problems of the History of Classical Literature (1906). He went to Athens in 1906 as professor of Greek literature at the American School of Classical Studies. The recent exploration by the School of the Cave of Vari, on Mount Hymettus, inspired him to write a remarkable monograph on The Origin of Plato's Cave (1906). John Henry Wright died on November 25, 1908, at Cambridge, Massachussets.

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A history of all nations from the earliest times; being a universal historical library... Volume 19

(Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We h...)

The College in the University and Classical Philology in the College. an Address at the Opening of the Eleventh Academic Year of the Johns Hopkins Uni

(Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We h...)