Henry Charles Lea

Henry Charles Lea was an American historian, civic reformer, and political activist. Lea was born and lived in Philadelphia.

Irish American theoretical mathematician Eugenius Nulty tutored both Henry Charles Lea and his elder brother the later, pioneer photographic chemist Mathew Carey Lea (called by family “Carey”) at their home in Philadelphia. Nulty not only helped mold Henry Charles Lea as a scholar but also (along with his father's and grandfather's connections) opened many an academic door for Lea.

The erudite Nulty gave the Lea brothers a classical education. He singlehandedly taught the pair the entirety of the trivium (grammar, logic and rhetoric) and quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, music and celestial navigation) and classical languages and history of its standard curriculum. Nulty immersed the boys in a single subject for long periods to encourage its complete mastery. Observing Henry's precocity, Nulty early on encouraged him to master far more difficult lessons than usually expected of a student his age. Henry Lea also demonstrated a facility for languages and analytical thought.

During their years under Nulty's tutelage, Henry and Carey also worked in the Booth & Boy chemical laboratory. This led to Henry's first published paper—at age 13—about manganese salts. The avocational interests of Lea's father (a noted natural scientist and conchologist as well as publisher) and Lea's mother (a knowledgeable botanist and classical linguist as well as homemaker) supplemented Henry's and Carey's education and shaped their interests. Henry also followed his father's interest in natural history and wrote several papers on descriptive conchology. He also displayed drawing talent and illustrated his own early articles about fossil shells that he had collected. His drawings were also used for the engravings illustrating his father's revision of the Synopsis of the Naiades in 1838. Henry Charles Lea developed an interest in poetry and at his mother's suggestion, translated Greek poets and composed original verse. Later, he often wrote satirical parodies of popular songs about politics.

On May 27, 1850, Henry Charles Lea married his first cousin and orphan Anna Caroline Jaudon (1824–1912). Her father, merchant William Latta Jaubon (1798–1832) of Bucks County, Pennsylvania had died in Cincinnati, Ohio when she was a child, followed four years later by her mother, Susan Gibson Lea Jaudon (1799–1836). The Jaudons were a wealthy Huguenot family from Soubise, France, and after the Edict of Nantes Peter Jaudon emigrated to Bucks County (and his family became Presbyterians), and Elie Jaudon emigrated to South Carolina. Perhaps the most noteworthy members were the teacher Daniel Jaudon (1767–1826, Anna Caroline's grandfather) and the financier Samuel Jaudon. Two years later Lea's brother Matthew Carey Lea married her sister Elizabeth (1827–1881), whose husband merchant William Bakewell had died in Cincinnati in 1850, leaving her with a young daughter. The Leas had three sons (who succeeded their father in the publishing business) and a daughter: Francis Henry Lea (1851–1902), Charles Matthew (1853–1886), Anna (Nina) Lea (1855–1927) and Arthur Henry Lea (1859–1939).

In 1843 Henry Charles Lea joined his father in business and continued with the firm (renamed Lea, Brothers & Co. and even later Lea & Febinger) until 1880 when his sons took over the business.

In 1847, after working in the family publishing firm for four years, Lea suffered a nervous breakdown and the twenty-two-year-old abandoned his intellectual and scientific work for some time. Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, one of the country's most prominent doctors in the field of nervous disorders, treated Lea and became a family friend. During his convalescence, Lea began reading French memoirs of the medieval period. They kindled his interest in medieval history and changed his career course from scientist to historian.

Lea died in Philadelphia and was buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery.