Nathaniel Schmidt - Career

Career

For two years (1887–1888) the Reverend Nathaniel Schmidt was pastor to the First Swedish Baptist Church in New York City. He resigned his pulpit in the Fall of 1887 to take a position as professor of Semitic languages and literatures at Colgate University (1888–1896). Schmidt was also full Professor of Semitic Languages and Literature in Hamilton Theological Seminary. Schmidt later held the same position at Cornell University (1896–1932) for thirty-six years. He was the founder of Colgate University’s Assyriology program. A year after taking his masters from Colgate, he was appointed Professor of Semitic Languages and Literature. Though the teaching of Hebrew was his primary tasking at Colgate, he developed a two-hour course in the history of Babylonia and Assyria. Following his departure for Cornell, Schmidt’s work was taken up by Colgate’s George Ricker Berry (1865–1945).