William Carey Poland diaries and photographs (Ms.2008.007)

Biographical note

William Carey Poland was born on January 25, 1846, in Grasmere, New Hampshire, to James and Sarah (Ayer) Poland. He began his nearly lifelong association with Brown University as an undergrad, earning both his A.B. (Phi Beta Kappa) and M.A. degrees before embarking on a long career as an educator and administrator. He taught Greek and Latin at Brown until 1892, when he turned his attention to Art History, holding a professorship in that field until his retirement in 1915. Among his administrative positions were the directorship of the American School of Classical Studies in Athens in 1891/1892 and the presidency of the Rhode Island School of Design from 1896 to 1907. He earned an honorary Litt. D. degree from Brown in 1904.

He married Clara Frances Harkness, daughter of Brown Classics professor Albert Harkness, in 1882, and they raised three sons, William, Albert and Reginald. According to the National Cyclopedia of American Biography, Poland "maintained a liberal mind, championed no epoch or school, but found interest and quality in the most diverse methods and points of view. He was quick to understand even if he did not always endorse the unconventional" (v. 22, p. 356). William Carey Poland died in Providence, Rhode Island, on March 19, 1929. After Poland's death, his family donated the "William Carey Poland Collection," a lending library of reproductions of significant art works, which students could rent to hang in their dormitory rooms.

For more information on William Carey Poland, please see his entry in Martha Mitchell's Encyclopedia Brunoniana - http://www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/Databases/Encyclopedia/search.php?serial=P0290