Josiah P. Cooke

Cooke studied at Harvard University, Harvard College and Boston Latin School. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is chemistry and mineralogy. Employment is recorded with Harvard University. Distinctions recorded are Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

• Name — Josiah Parsons Cooke • Born — October 12, 1827 • Birthplace — Boston, Massachusetts • Died — 3 September 1894 • Place of death — Newport, Rhode Island • Resting Place — Mount Auburn Cemetery • Education — * Boston Latin School • Harvard College, A.B. (1848) • Occupation — * Chemist • author

Josiah Parsons Cooke was born in Boston, Massachusetts on October 12, 1827. He attended Boston Latin School and as a teenager set up his own chemical laboratory, partly due to an interest sparked by lectures of Yale's Benjamin Silliman. The teaching of chemistry at Harvard was in poor shape at this time, so after Cooke entered the university in 1843 he continued to be largely self-taught in the subject. Cooke graduated from Harvard in 1848 with an A.B., and became a mathematics tutor there the following year. In 1850 he was elected the Erving Professor of Chemistry and Mineralogy at Harvard, although he had had little formal education in chemistry. Reversing the modern order, after Cooke obtained his professorship he embarked on a plan of advanced study, spending eight months in Europe attending the lectures of Dumas and Regnault. On returning to the United States, Cooke began in earnest to raise the standard of chemical education at Harvard, introducing required courses in chemistry, accompanied by laboratory instruction. He was one of the first, if not the very first, in the United States to use laboratory work to teach chemistry. Cooke's first publication was in 1852, a study of an arsenic crystal. This was followed by investigations of the atomic weights of arsenic and other elements. In 1857 he published a collection of chemical problems for use of the undergraduates of Harvard College with reference to the Elements of Chemistry by Julius Adolph Stöckhardt. By 1862 Cooke also was publishing in the new field of spectroscopy. He studied crystals throughout his career, and the mineral "Cookeite", an aluminosilicate quartz, is named after him. In addition to his research efforts, Cooke taught a course in introductory chemistry for over forty years and was, by all accounts, quite successful at it. According to Jackson, Cooke published forty-one scientific papers based on his research and thirty-two on other subjects, along with at least eight books. Among the areas in which Cooke took an interest and published in was the relationship between religion and science. In 1860, Cooke married Mary H. Huntington, the daughter of Elisha Huntington and sister of William Reed Huntington; the couple had no children. In 1859–1860, Huntington's brother William was Assistant in Chemistry for Cooke at Harvard. Cooke died September 3, 1894, in Newport, Rhode Island, and was buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery.

The authorities additionally record the headings Josiah Parsons Cooke Jr., Josiah Parsons Cooke, Cooke J P and Josiah Cooke. His recorded language was English. He was the child of Josiah Parsons Cooke. He married Mary Hinckley Huntington.

Cooke worked in chemistry and mineralogy. He was employed by Harvard University. He belonged to National Academy of Sciences and American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

• Illustration — Josiah Parsons Cooke * * * * * * * * * *