Ephraim Emerton

{{Short description|American educator, author, translator, and historian}}

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Ephraim Emerton (February 18, 1851 – March 3, 1935) was an American educator, author, translator, and historian prominent in his field of European medieval history.

Early life and education

File:Andover Hall, Harvard Divinity School - general view.JPG, Cambridge, Massachusetts|alt=refer to caption]]

Ephraim Emerton was born in Salem, Massachusetts, to James and Martha West Emerton.{{Cite news |title=Ephraim Emerton, Historian, is Dead: Harvard Professor Emeritus Was an Authority on Middle Ages and Reformation |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1935/03/04/archives/ephraim-emerton-historian-is-dead-harvard-professor-emeritus-was-an.html?sq=Ephraim%2520Emerton&scp=2&st=cse |newspaper=New York Times |date=March 4, 1935 |location=New York |accessdate=2014-10-13 }} His elder brother was James Henry Emerton (1847–1930), naturalist and arachnologist.{{Cite news |title=J.H. Emerton Dies; Noted Naturalist; Author and Entomologist Passes Away in Boston at the Age of 83 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1930/12/07/archives/jh-emerton-dies-noted-naturalist-author-and-entomologist-passes.html?sq=Ephraim%2520Emerton&scp=14&st=cse |newspaper=New York Times |date=December 7, 1930 |location=New York |accessdate=2014-10-13 }}

At the age of twenty, Emerton graduated from Harvard College. He continued his postgraduate education in Germany and received his doctorate from the University of Leipzig in 1876.{{Cite book |url=http://library.hds.harvard.edu/exhibits/hds-20th-century/emerton |title=Ephraim Emerton (1851–1935) |year=2000 |publisher=Harvard Divinity School Library, Harvard Divinity School |accessdate=2014-10-13 }} Returning to Massachusetts the following year, he married Sybil M. Clark of Cambridge and accepted a teaching position at Harvard.

Academic career

Emerton served at first as an instructor in both History and German language. He eventually became Harvard's foremost professor of Ecclesiastical History, and served on the faculty for forty-two years (1876–1918). A devout Unitarian, he taught at the Harvard Divinity School and most of his writings deal with religious figures and issues. In 1882, he was appointed to a Harvard chair as Winn Professor of Ecclesiastical History,{{Cite journal |year=1918 |title=Ephraim Emerton Resigned |journal=The Harvard Crimson |issue=20 May |url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1918/5/20/ephraim-emerton-resigned-pat-the-last/ |accessdate=2014-10-13 }} the first such professorship bestowed by the Winn financial endowment.{{Cite book |title=Quinquennial catalogue of the officers and graduates of Harvard university, 1636–1915 |year=1915 |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, MA |page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_JiNOAAAAMAAJ/page/n39 27] |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_JiNOAAAAMAAJ |accessdate=2014-10-13 }}

In 1884, Emerton became one of the founders of the oldest and largest historians' society in the United States, the American Historical Association. Throughout his life he was active in numerous academic organizations including the New England History Teachers' Association, the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Essex Institute and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences of which he was a Fellow.

Emerton retired from teaching on September 1, 1918 and he was granted the title of professor emeritus. In his retirement he continued his historical research and translation work. He remained active with academic groups and, in 1921, he accepted the position of president of the Cambridge Historical Society. He died at his home in Cambridge on March 3, 1935 at the age of eighty-four.

Works

The Dutch theologian Erasmus (1466–1536) was the inspiration for Emerton's Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam, first published as one section of a multi-author compilation called Heroes of the Reformation. Published as a standalone book in 1899, it is regarded by scholars as his greatest historical work.

Emerton frequently contributed to larger works, writing articles for books, journals, and even the New York Evening Post. He was an authoritative contributor to the New International Encyclopedia (1914), and provided the full entries for Erasmus and the papacy.{{Cite book |title=New International Encyclopedia |year=1914 |edition=II |publisher=Dodd, Mead & Co. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GRUoAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Ephraim+Emerton%22&pg=PR12 |accessdate=2014-10-13 }}

Emerton also authored several widely read textbooks for high school and college students, including Mediaeval Europe, 814–1300 and An Introduction to the Study of the Middle Ages (375-814), which were highly acclaimed by his contemporaries. Professor Emerton's texts were standard reading within the American educational system for decades after their publication.{{Cite journal |last1=Paetow |first1=L.J. |year=1918 |title=Reviews of Books: The Beginnings of Modern Europe (1250–1450) by Ephraim Emerton |journal=The American Historical Review |publisher=American Historical Association |volume=23 |issue=4 |pages=842–844 |jstor=1836341 |doi=10.2307/1836341|hdl=2027/nyp.33433043180136 |url=http://archive.org/details/beginningsofmode00emeriala |hdl-access=free }}

A facility for languages never left Emerton, and the translation of medieval German and Latin texts to contemporary English language was his special occupation. One of his most enduring efforts is a translation of the letters of Saint Boniface, the last work published before his death.

Emerton's body of work includes:

= Books =

  • {{Cite book |title=Synopsis of the history of continental Europe, 800-1250 |year=1880 |publisher=W.H. Wheeler |location=Cambridge |oclc= 19021084 }}
  • {{Cite book |title=Mediaeval Europe, 814–1300 |year=1894 |publisher=Ginn & Co. |location=Boston |oclc= 391878 |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924027795859 |accessdate=2014-10-13 }}
  • {{Cite book |title=An Introduction to the Study of the Middle Ages (375-814) |year=1899 |publisher=Ginn & Co. |location=Boston |oclc= 560266601 |url=https://archive.org/details/introductiontost00emer_0 |accessdate=2014-10-13 }}
  • {{Cite book |title=Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam |year=1899 |publisher=G.P. Putnam's Sons |location=New York |oclc= 312661 |url=https://archive.org/details/desideriuserasmu00emeruoft |quote=Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam. |accessdate=2014-10-13 }}
  • {{Cite book |title=Unitarian Thought |year=1911 |publisher=Macmillan Co. |location=New York |oclc= 1403642 |url=https://archive.org/details/unitarianthough00emer |quote=Unitarian Thought. |accessdate=2014-10-13 }}
  • {{Cite book |title=Beginnings of Modern Europe (1250–1450) |year=1917 |publisher=Ginn & Co. |location=Boston |oclc= 484803 |url=https://archive.org/details/beginningsmoder00unkngoog |quote=Beginnings of Modern Europe (1250-1450). |accessdate=2014-10-13 }}
  • {{Cite book |title=The Defensor Pacis of Marsiglio of Padua: A Critical Study |year=1920 |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge |oclc= 257462319 |url=https://archive.org/details/defensorpacisma00emergoog |quote=The Defensor Pacis of Marsiglio of Padua. |accessdate=2014-10-13 }}
  • {{Cite book |title=Learning and Living:Academic Essays |year=1921 |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge |oclc= 697952360 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xZJDAAAAIAAJ&q=Learning+and+Living:Academic+Essays |accessdate=2014-10-13 }}
  • {{Cite book |title=Humanism and Tyranny, Studies in the Italian Trecento |year=1925 |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge |oclc= 1561687 }}
  • {{Cite book |title=The correspondence of Pope Gregory VII: Selected letters from the Registrum |year=1932 |publisher=Columbia University Press |location=New York |isbn= 9780231096270|oclc= 1471578 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EgRbpkgRSZAC&q=The+correspondence+of+Pope+Gregory+VII |accessdate=2014-10-13 }}
  • {{Cite book |title=The letters of Saint Boniface |year=1934 |publisher=Macmillan Co. |location=New York |isbn= 9780231120920|oclc= 499912626 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vbz7iqZKUqQC&q=The+letters+of+Saint+Boniface |accessdate=2014-10-13 }}

= Pamphlets, booklets, articles =

  • {{Cite journal |year=1909 |title=The Calvin celebration : Four hundredth anniversary of his birth |journal=The Evening Post |publisher=New York Evening Post Co. |issue=July 10 |oclc= 171293674}}
  • {{Cite journal |last1= Emerton|first1= Ephraim|year=1915 |title=Fra Salimbene and the Franciscan Ideal |journal=Harvard Theological Review |volume=8 |issue=4 |pages=480–503 |jstor=1507265 |doi=10.1017/s0017816000009196|s2cid= 162895403|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1428622 }}
  • {{Cite book |title=Methods of Teaching History |last=Diesterweg |first=Friedrich Adolph Wilhelm |author-link=Friedrich Adolph Wilhelm Diesterweg

|chapter=The Historical Seminary in American Teaching |publisher=Ginn, Heath, & Co. |location=Boston |pages=11–200 }}

= Other =

  • Papers of Ephraim Emerton, 1891–1930, a collection of notes and lectures including a sound recording, is in the permanent collection of the Harvard University Library (OCLC 77069261).

References

{{Reflist}}

Further reading

  • Founding the Fathers: Early Church History and Protestant Professors in Nineteenth Century America, by Elizabeth A. Clark. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 2011. {{ISBN|978-0-8122-4319-2}}