William Francis Allen | |
|---|---|
 Allen in 1865 | |
| Born | (1830-09-05)September 5, 1830 |
| Died | December 9, 1889(1889-12-09) (aged 59) |
| Education | Harvard College |
| Father | Joseph Allen |
William Francis Allen (September 5, 1830 – December 9, 1889) was an American classical scholar and an editor of the first book of American slave songs,Slave Songs of the United States.
Allen was born inNorthborough, Massachusetts in 1830, the son ofJoseph Allen. He graduatedHarvard College in 1851; later he traveled and studied in Europe. AUnitarian, he considered the ministry before deciding to pursue a literary and scholarly career. In 1856, he became assistant principal at theWest Newton English and Classical School in Massachusetts, headed by his cousinNathaniel Topliff Allen. In 1862 he married a former student of the Allen School, Mary Tileston Lambert, daughter of Rev Henry and Catherine Porter Lambert, from West Newton. In 1863–4, during theCivil War, William and his wife Mary ran a school fornewly emancipated slaves on the Sea Islands of South Carolina. His detailed journals about their this experience were published inA Yankee Scholar in Coastal South Carolina: William Allen's Civil War Journals.[1] In 1864 and 1865, he worked as a sanitary agent among black war refugees inArkansas. He returned to the Lambert family home in West Newton, MA in 1865 in time for the birth of their daughter Katherine, followed by the death of his wife Mary one month later.
After the war, he taught atAntioch College, and in 1867, he became professor of ancient languages and history (afterwardsLatin language andRoman history) at theUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison.[2] His daughter Katherine Lambert Allen joined him and his new family in Wisconsin: she later earned a bachelor's degree (1887) and PhD (1898) and became an instructor at the university.[3] Allen was elected a member of theAmerican Antiquarian Society in 1888.[4] He died in December 1889.[5]
He wrote prolifically for journals and magazines. His contributions to classical studies chiefly consist of schoolbooks published in the Allen (his brotherJoseph Henry Allen) and Greenough series. TheSlave Songs of the United States (1867), of which he was joint-editor withCharles Pickard Ware andLucy McKim Garrison, was inspired by his work among the freedmen and the first book of its kind ever published.[2]
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Allen, William Francis".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 693.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
"Allen, William Francis".The Biographical Dictionary of America. Vol. 1. 1906. p. 91. Works by or aboutWilliam Francis Allen atWikisource