John Addison Porter (March 15, 1822 - August 25, 1866) was an American Professor of Chemistry. He was born in Catskill, New York and died in New Haven, Connecticut. He, along with William Kingsley, publisher of The New Englander, and 8 others, founded the senior or secret society Scroll and Key and incorporated the Kingsley Trust Association (K.T.A.) at Yale University in 1841.
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Academic life
Porter graduated from Yale College in 1842 and moved to Philadelphia for further study. In 1844 he became a professor at Delaware College and remained there until 1847 when he moved to Germany to study at the University of Giessen under Justus von Liebig. In 1850 he returned to the United states and became a professor at Brown University. He left in 1852 to take the place of the retiring Professor John Pitkin Norton at Sheffield Scientific School (then Yale Scientific School). He remained at Yale until he had to resign for health reasons in 1864, two years before his death. In 1871 Yale University introduced the John Addison Porter Prize for "the best original essay completed during the current academic year on a subject bearing upon the political, constitutional, or economic history, condition, or future of the United States"--Direct quote from the Yale University website. It is the only prize available to all members of the University.
Personal life
He was married to one of the daughters of Joseph E. Sheffield, whose name adorns the school where he was professor for 12 years. They had a son, also John Addison, born in New Haven, Connecticut on April 17th, 1856, who also graduated from Yale (in 1878) and who published many articles and pieces of his own work.
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 national epic Kalevala into English using the German translation by Franz Anton Schiefner (the same version used by John Martin Crawford for his complete 1888 translation).
External links
- Yale university prizes. History
- Article from New Englander and Yale review. (Volume 27, Issue 103) On Porters early translation of parts of the Finnish epic, Kalevala
