Henry Martyn Baird (January 17, 1832 – November 1906) was an American

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

and educator. He is best known as a historian of the

Huguenots The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...

Life

A son of Robert Baird (1798–1863), the

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

preacher and author who worked both in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

and in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

for the cause of temperance, Henry Martyn Baird was born in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, on January 17, 1832. The younger Baird spent eight years of his early youth with his father in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

and

Geneva , neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier , website = https://www.geneve.ch/ Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevr ...

, and in 1850 graduated from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

. He then lived for two years in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

and

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...

, was a student in the Union Theological Seminary in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

from 1853 to 1855 and, in 1856, graduated from the

Princeton Theological Seminary Princeton Theological Seminary (PTSem), officially The Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church, is a private school of theology in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1812 under the auspices of Archibald Alexander, the General Assembly of t ...

. Employed for four years as a tutor at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), Henry Martyn Baird was then employed as a professor of

Greek language Greek ( el, label= Modern Greek, Ελληνικά, Elliniká, ; grc, Ἑλληνική, Hellēnikḗ) is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece, Cyprus, southern Italy ( Calabria and Salento), southe ...

and literature at New York University from 1859 until his death.

Works

Henry Martyn Baird's research and writing regarding the Huguenots appeared in three parts, entitled respectively ''History of the Rise of the Huguenots of France'' (2 vols, 1879), ''The Huguenots and Henry of Navarre'' (2 vols, 1886), and ''The Huguenots and the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes'' (2 vols, 1895), and was described by the '' 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica'' as being "characterized by painstaking thoroughness, by a judicial temper, and by scholarship of a high order". He also published ''Modern Greece, A Narrative of a Residence and Travels in that Country'' (1856); a biography of his father, ''The Life of the Rev. Robert Baird, D.D.'' (1866); and ''

Theodore Beza Theodore Beza ( la, Theodorus Beza; french: Théodore de Bèze or ''de Besze''; June 24, 1519 – October 13, 1605) was a French Calvinist Protestant theologian, reformer and scholar who played an important role in the Protestant Reformation ...

, the Counsellor of the French Reformation'' (1899). Baird was elected as a member to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

in 1884. He died in New York City in November 1906.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Baird, Henry Martyn 1832 births 1906 deaths 19th-century American historians 19th-century American male writers Writers from Philadelphia New York University alumni New York University faculty Union Theological Seminary (New York City) alumni Princeton Theological Seminary alumni American expatriates in France Historians from Pennsylvania Members of the American Philosophical Society American male non-fiction writers