John Henry

The name John Henry has several different meanings.

• John Henry (folklore), the "steel-driving man", is an African-American folk hero

Real people

• John Henry (Musician), American pianist and composer.
• John Joseph Henry (1758–1811), American Revolutionary War soldier
• John Henry (Maryland), an 18th century U.S. Senator from and Governor of Maryland
• John Henry (representative), a 19th century U.S. Representative from Illinois
• John Flournoy Henry, an U.S. Representative from Kentucky
• John W. Henry, principal owner of the Boston Red Sox
• John Henry (toxicologist), a toxicologist, professor at Imperial College London and a consultant to Britain's National Poisons Information Service
• John Henry (vocalist), a vocalist in the metalcore band Darkest Hour
• John Henry (spy) (1776–1853), a British spy
• John Henry (Bailiff of Guernsey) (1446–1447), Bailiff of Guernsey
• John Henry (historian), a historian of science associated with the Strong Programme
• John Henry (Australian politician), an Australian politician
• John Henry (boxer), a Canadian boxer
• John Henry (colonial judge), (?-1773) Colonel in the Virginia milita and Judge of Hanover County.
• John Henry (19th century baseball player) (1863-1939)
• John Henry (MLB catcher) (1889-1941)
• John Henry (New Zealand Justice), a New Zealand Privy Councillor and Court of Appeal Justice

Works of fiction

• John Henry (novel) is a 1931 novel by Roark Bradford, based on the African-American folk hero of the same name (see above).
• John Henry Days is a 2002 American novel by Colson Whitehead, which explores the story of the African American folk hero John Henry.
• John Henry (play) is a Broadway play based on the above novel, and later a musical
• John Henry (album) is a 1994 rock album by They Might Be Giants
• John Henry Irons, better known as the superhero Steel.
• John Henry (Transformers), a character in the 2006 Transformers series.

Other notable uses

• John Henry (horse) is a champion Thoroughbred racehorse.
• One's signature, as in "put your John Henry right here", see "John Hancock"^[1]
• A snack lunch eaten in the field (Texas prison slang)^[2]
• A penis, variation on John Thomas^[2]
• To play John Henry, to approach a woman^[2]

References

1. ^ An alternate expression commonly used as a synonym for "signature" is "John Henry":

   JOHN HENRY/JOHN HANCOCK - "As every schoolboy knows, the biggest, boldest and most defiant signature on the Declaration of Independence was scrawled by John Hancock of Massachusetts. So completely did it overshadow the autographs of the other founding fathers that the term 'John Hancock' has become synonymous with 'signature' and each of us at the one time or another has spoken of 'putting his 'John Hancock' at the bottom of a document. In the West, a half century and more later, the phrase became altered to 'John Henry,' and nobody knows quite why. Suffice it that, in the words of Ramon Adams's excellent collection of cowboy jargon, 'Western Words': 'John Henry is what the cowboy calls his signature. He never signs a document, he puts his 'John Henry' to it!' Incidentally, there seems to be no connection between the John Henry of cowboy slang and the fabulous John Henry of railroad lore, who was so powerful that he could outdrive a steam drill with his hammer and steel, This legend has been traced to the drilling of the Chesapeake and Ohio Big Tunnel through West Virginia in the 1870s - substantially later than the first use of John Henry by cowpokes of the Old West."

   (JOHN HENRY/JOHN HANCOCK, Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins, William and Mary Morris, HarperCollins, New York, 1977, 1988, ISBN 006015862X );

   Cassell's Dictionary of Slang (Jonathon Green, Sterling Publishing Company, Inc, 2006, ISBN 0304366366) states that this usage of the phrase "John Henry" dates from the 1910s, and other synonyms for signature include "John Brown", "John D", "John Esquire", "John Handle", "John Q", "John Rogers", "John Willy" and "John Smith".
2. ^ ^{a b c} Cassell's Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, Sterling Publishing Company, Inc, 2006, ISBN 0304366366

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