Harlan Hoge Ballard

Harlan Hoge Ballard (May 26, 1853 – February 18, 1934) was an American author. He was founder of the Agassiz Association and served as librarian of the Berkshire Athenaeum for 46 years.

Harlan Hoge Ballard
BornMay 26, 1853 
Athens 
DiedFebruary 18, 1934  (aged 80)
Pittsfield 
Parent(s)

Harlan Hoge Ballard was born on May 26, 1853 in Athens, Ohio. He was the son of the Rev. Addison Ballard and Julia Perkins Ballard, a writer of nature books and temperance fiction.[1] Ballard attended public school in Athens and Detroit, Michigan and graduated from Williams College in 1874. Upon graduating, he became principal of Lenox High School until 1880 and principal of Lenox Academy from 1880 to 1886.[1][2][3]

In 1875, he founded the Agassiz Association, an organization dedicated to the promotion of natural science, especially among young people. By the 1890s, membership numbered over 20,000 people.[4]

In 1886, he left teaching for literary efforts. He edited The Swiss Cross, the Agassiz Association monthly magazine, and the newspaper the New York Observer. He published numerous books, including a translation of Virgil's Aeneid (1930).[2]

He became librarian of the Berkshire Athenaeum on November 1, 1888.[2] He also served as President of the Western Massachusetts Library Club.[5]

Harlan Hoge Ballard died of a heart attack on 18 February 1934 in Pittsfield.[6]

References
  1. Farlow, Charles Frederic; Pope, Charles Henry (1911). Ballard genealogy : William Ballard (1603-1639) of Lynn, Massachusetts and William Ballard (1617-1689) of Andover, Massachusetts and their descendants. Boston Public Library. Boston : C.H. Pope. pp. 161–2, 173.
  2. "Translation Not Mr. Ballard's Only Literary Enterprise". Berkshire Eagle. 6 June 1908.
  3. "Ballard, Harlan Hoge," Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography
  4. Keeney, Elizabeth (1992). The Botanizers: Amateur Scientists in Nineteenth-century America. Univ of North Carolina Press. pp. 140–145. ISBN 978-0-8078-2046-9.
  5. Library Journal. Library Journal. April 1900. p. 182.
  6. "Founder of Agassiz Association Dies". Oakland Tribune. 19 February 1934.
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