Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 05.djvu/128

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HAKKISOX


HARRISON


dissolution of that firm. lie was eleotoil a trus- tee of the University of Pennsylvania in 1876; chairman of the committee of ways and means in I880; and on the resignation of William Pep- per as provost, in 181)4, he succeeded as acting provost and in June, 1895, was elected provost of the university. He was manager of the P.E. hospital, Philadelphia; a member of the Ameri- can acjidemy of political and social science, of the American philosophiciil society, of the Pennsylvania historical .societj', and of the Numismatic and Anticjuarian societies. He was married in 18T0 to Ellen Nixon, daughter of E Iward Wain of Philadelphia, and great-grand- daugliter of Robert Morris. He endowed the

  • ' George Leib Harrison Memorial Foundation "'

of the Universitj- of Pennsylvania by a gift to the institution of §500,000, and later, in conjunc- tion with Mrs. Harrison, gave another sum of $-250, 000 to the general purposes of the univer- sity. He received the honorary degree of LL.D. from Columbia university in 1895 and from Princeton university in 1896.

HARRISON, Constance Cary, author, was born in Vaucluse, Fairfax county, Va., April 25, 1848; daugliter of Archibald and Monimia (Fair- fax) Gary: granddaughter of Thomas, ninth Lord Fairfax, baron of Cameron in the peerage of Scotland; and a descendant of Col. Arcliibald /stJ^^ij) Carv, a Revolution-

j!^^^^^^ ary^ patriot, and of

, .; ' _. " . . Col. William Fairfax

, ,J^ of Belvoir, the friend

and neighbor of Washington; also a great-grandniece of Thomas Jefferson. She was educated at home in Fairfax county, Virginia, an 1 afterward in Paris where she resided for .some time with

^ ^ her widowed motlier.

OfU'.'iA^ou^'^M^,^/^^i^ult^fiKj^ She was married '^ 7^-— 2 to Burton Harri- son, a lawyer, at Old Morrisania, the residence of lier uncle, Gouverneur Morris, in Westchester, and afterward resided in New York city, having a summer home called "The Sea Urchins," at Bar Harbor, Maine, and engaged in literary work. She travelled much in Europe, America and the East. She is the author of: UoUlcn Hod (1880); IMen Troij (1881); Woman's Hnndiwork in Modern Homes (1881); Old Fashioned Fairy 7?ooi- (1884); Folk and Fatnj Tales {XHm); Bric-aBrac Stories (1886); Bar Ilnrhor Days (1887); The Anyloma- niacs (1887); Floicer-de-Ihindred {\m\); Crov's Nest and Belharen Tales (1892); Sweet Bells Out of


^?


Tune (1893); A Bachelor Maid (1894); An Errant Wooing (1895); Externals of Modxrn Neio York (189()); .1 Merry Maid of Arcady, and Other Stories (1897); A Son of the Old Dominion (1897); Good Anierirnns (1898); and The Circle of a Century (1899); besides several plays and many contribu- tions to jjeriodicals.

HARRISON, Gabriel, actor, author and artist, was born in Philadelpliia, Pa., March 25, 1818; son of Charles P. and Elizabeth (Porter) Harri- son; grandson of William, a bank-note engraver; and great-grandson of John Harrison, the inven- tor of an exact chronometer. In 1832 he removed with his father to New York city. In 1832 he witnessed a performance of Ed- win Forrest and then determined to be- come an actor. In November, 1837, he made his debut at Wallack's National theatre, New York city, as Othello, and from that time con- tinued to act at intervals. In 1845 he supported Cliarles Kean in his Shake- spearian revivals at the Park theatre. He

organized the Brooklyn dramatic academy in 1851 and managed the Adelphi theatre at Troy, N.Y., in 1859. On Sept. 14, 1863, he opened the Brooklyn Park theatre, the first in that city, and successfully organized an English opera company, but finally met with financial disaster. Subsecjuently he leased and managed the Brooklyn academy of music. About 1872 he became a teacher of elocution and acting in Brooklyn. He was one of the founders of the Faust club in Brooklyn, and was instrumental in raising the funds for a bronze bust of John Howard Payne, placed by the club in Prospect park. He was also interested in painting, exe- cuting a number of landscapes, notably "Swal- low's Roost," " Solitude," " A Look Between the Trees," and "The Falls of Minnehalia"; and .several portraits including two of Eilwin Forrest in the civaracters of Coriolanus and Othello. In 1851 and 1853 he jiroduced several daguerreotypes which won various prize medals. In 1867 lie was corresponding secretary of the Brooklyn academy of design, raised money to pay its debts, and put its free art school on a i)rosperous basis. He is the author of: The Life and Writings of John Ifovmrd Payne (1873); Life of Edvin For- rest (1889); and a chapter on Drama, Music and