Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 08.djvu/335

 PICKERING

PICKERING

astronomy in 1887 and a director of the astro- nomical department of the Carnegie Institution, Washington, D.C., in March, 1902. He invented an improved spectrum telescope and a telephone receiver in 1870. He established an auxiliary observation station at Arequipa, Peru, and on August 7, 1869, accompanied the Nautical Alma- nac expedition to observe the total eclipse of the sun. He was also a member of the coast survey expedition to Xeres, Spain, to observe the eclipse of Dec. 23, 1870. He was a vice-president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1876; was elected a fellow of the Amer- ican Academy of Arts and Sciences; a member of the National Academy of Sciences, receiving the Henry Draper medal for work on astronomical physics; an associate member of the Royal Astronomical society, London, receiving its gold medal in 1886 for photometric researches and in 1901 for researches on variable stars and work in astronomical photography; an associate member of the Astronomical Society of Liverpool, and an honorary member of several other foreign socie- ties. The honorary degree of A.M. was conferred on him by Harvard in 1880, that of LL.D. by the University of California in 1886 and by the University of Michigan in 1887, that of S.D. by the Victoria institute, England, in 1900, and that of LL.D. by the University of Cliicago in 1901. Besides many volumes of Annals of the Obser- vatory, he is the author of: Elements of Physical Mampulation (3 parts, 1873-76), and editor of The Tlieory of Color in its Relation to Art and Art Industry, by Dr. William Bezold (1876).

PICKERING, John, jurist, was born at New- ington, N.H., Sept. 22. 1737; son of Joshua and Mary Pickering; grandson of Thomas and Mary (Gee) Pickerin, and great-grandson of John Pickerin, a native of England, who was in Ports- mouth, N.H., as early as 1633. John Pickering was graduated from Harvard, A.B., 1761, A.M., 1764, and opened a law office at Greenland, N.H., removing shortly afterward to Portsmouth. He was married to Abigail Sheafe. He was a member of the state constitutional convention in 1784, and in 1787 was elected a member of the Federal con- stitutional convention, but declined to serve. He was a state senator; judge of the supreme court of New Hampshire, 1790-95, serving as chief justice in 1795, and judge of the U.S. district court for New Hampshire, 1795-1804. He was impeached in 1803, and removed from office by a party vote, the charge being drunkenness and profanity on the bench, and the defence before the senate being insanity. He was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred on him by Dartmouth in 1792. He died in Ports- mouth, N.H., April 11, 1805.

PICKERING, John, philologist, was born in Salem, Mass., Feb. 7, 1777; son of Timothy (q.v.) and Rebecca ( White ) Pickering. He was grad- uated from Harvard, A.B., 1796, A.M., 1799; studied law in Philadelphia, and was secretary to William Smith, U. S. minister to Portugal, 1897- 99, and to Rufus King, U.S. minister to Great Britain, 1799-1801. He practised law in Salem, Mass., 1801-37; removed to Boston in 1827, and was city solicitor until his resignation in 1846. He was a representative in the state legislature, state senator and member of the committee that revised and arranged the statutes of Massa- chusetts. He spoke fluently the English, French, Portugese, Italian, Spanish, German, Romaic, Greek, and Latin languages, and studied the Eastern languages and the Indian languages of America. He declined the professorship of Eng- lish and Oriental languages, also that of Greek Literature at Harvard, and the office of provost of the University of Pennsylvania. He was a member of the board of overseers of Harvard, 1818-34, and received the honorary degree of LL.D. from Bowdoin in 1832, and from Harvard in 1835. He was president of the American Acad- emy of Arts and Sciences, and of the American Oriental society; a member of the Linntean So- ciety of New England; the American Philosoph- ical society; the American Antiquarian society; the Society of the Cincinnati; the Boston Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge; the Mas- sachusetts Historical society; the Royal Society of Northern Antiquarians; the French Society of Universal Statistics; the Berlin Academy of Sciences, and the Oriental Society of Paris; and an honorary member of the Philadelphia Society for the Promotion of Legal Knowledge; the His- torical Societ}^ of Pennsylvania, the Archaeolog- ical Society of Greece, the New Hampshire His- torical society, the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge in China, the Michigan His- torical society, and the Egyptian Literary asso- ciation. He is the author of: A Vocabidary or Collection of Words and Phrases u'hich have been supposed to he Peculiar to the United States of America (1814); Memoir on the Adoption of a Uniform Orthography for the Indian Languages of North America (1830); Eevieiv of the Interna- tional McLeod Question (1835); Comprehensive Dictionary of the Greek Language (1836); Lecture on the Alleged Uncertainty of Laiv (1830); The Agrarian Lazes (1833); Memoir on the Inhab- itants of Lord North's Island (1835); Remarks on the Indian Languages of North America (1836). He died in Boston, Mass., May 5, 1846.

PICKERING, Timothy, statesman, was born in Salem, Mass., July 17, 1745; son of Timothy and Mary (IVingate) Pickering; grandson of John and Sarah (Burrill) Pickering, and of Joshua and