HARPER, WILLIAM RAINEY American Hebraist and educator, was born on July 26, 1856, at New Con cord, O. His interest in Hebraic studies began in Muskingum col lege, at which he graduated in 1870. In 1875, when but 19 years of age, he received his Ph.D. at Yale for studies in the Indo-Iran ian and Semitic languages. In 1880, after several years of academy teaching, he was given a professorship in Hebrew at the Baptist Union Theological seminary in Chicago. Here he founded The Hebrew Student and Hebraica and organized the American Insti tute of Hebrew. He published a number of text-books and study helps for the teaching of Hebrew which found wide use. In 1886 he accepted a professorship in Semitic languages at Yale, and in 1889 was appointed also Woolsey professor of biblical litera ture, filling both positions simultaneously. He gave up his work at Yale, however, to accept in 1891, the presidency of the newly established University of Chicago. His liberal aims and compre hensive plans, for the new university attracted wide attention and the president was able to raise sufficient funds to build adequate buildings and gather a notable faculty at the start. The university as a result was an immediate success. Harper remained its presi dent and head of the department of Semitic languages until his death on Jan. 1o, 1906.
Among his more important books are Religion and the Higher Life (1904) ; A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Amos and Hosea (1905) ; The Prophetic Element in the Old Testament (19o5) ; The Trend in Higher Education (1905).
See T. W. Goodspeed, William Rainey Harper (1928).