Albert C. Barnes - Early Life and Education

Early Life and Education

Albert Barnes was born in Philadelphia to working-class parents. His father had been a butcher before the Civil War (American); during that war, he lost his right arm at the Battle of Cold Harbor, 1864. After the war, his father became a letter carrier. Barnes' mother was a devout Methodist who took him to African-American camp meetings and revivals.

Albert Barnes earned a spot at the public academic Central High School in Philadelphia. There he became friends with William Glackens, who later became an artist and advised him on his first collecting efforts. Barnes went on to college and medical school at the University of Pennsylvania, earning his way by tutoring, boxing, and playing semi-professional baseball. By age 20, he was a medical doctor. He went into research as a chemist rather than clinical practice.

Read more about this topic:  Albert C. Barnes

Famous quotes containing the words early, life and/or education:

    “For the writer, there is nothing quite like having someone say that he or she understands, that you have reached them and affected them with what you have written. It is the feeling early humans must have experienced when the firelight first overcame the darkness of the cave. It is the communal cooking pot, the Street, all over again. It is our need to know we are not alone.”
    —Virginia Hamilton (b. 1936)

    “In the production of the necessaries of life Nature is ready enough to assist man.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    “If factory-labor is not a means of education to the operative of to-day, it is because the employer does not do his duty. It is because he treats his work-people like machines, and forgets that they are struggling, hoping, despairing human beings.”
    —Harriet H. Robinson (1825–1911)