Henry Harrisse

Henry Harrisse (1829 – May 13, 1910) was a man of letters, art critic, lawyer and American historian who authored books on the discovery of America and geographic representations of the New World.

Henry Harrisse was born in Paris May 28, 1829.His father was Abraham, a furrier, probably from Russia or Prague, and his mother was Nanine Marcus of ParisVery young, he moved to his American family and takes the nationality of the country. He studied at the University of South Carolina and began his academic career at the University of North Carolina. He taught letters, philosophy and law. According to his biographer Henri Cordier his early writings are devoted to Taineand Renan and it would have annotated the works of metaphysical Descartes. But the turn of his mind focused on the study of the origins of modern America s and he gave himself ardently. This led to the exploration of the archives of the discovery of the Americas and to his achieving a critical and complete historical oevre of this object.

Harrisse was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1893.