Arthur Gordon Webster

Arthur Gordon Webster (November 28, 1863 - May 15, 1923) was the founder of the American Physical Society. Arthor Gordon Webster was born on 28 November, 1863 at Brookline, Massachusetts to William Edward Webster and Mary Shannon Davis. On 8 October, 1889 he married Elizabeth Munroe Townsend, daughter of Captain Robert Townsend and Harriett Munro of Albany, New York. Webster had graduated from Harvard College in 1885 at the top of his class and h... more

Arthur Gordon Webster (November 28, 1863 - May 15, 1923) was the founder of the American Physical Society. Arthor Gordon Webster was born on 28 November, 1863 at Brookline, Massachusetts to William Edward Webster and Mary Shannon Davis. On 8 October, 1889 he married Elizabeth Munroe Townsend, daughter of Captain Robert Townsend and Harriett Munro of Albany, New York. Webster had graduated from Harvard College in 1885 at the top of his class and had stayed for a year as instructor in mathematics and physics. At the end of that year he went to the University of Berlin where he studied for four years with Hermann von Helmholtz, receiving his PhD in 1890. Helmholtz is said to have considered Webster his favorite American student. During this period Webster also studied in Paris and Stockholm. He was unusually proficient in literature and was fluent in Latin, Greek, German, French, and Swedish, with a good knowledge of Italian and Spanish and competency in Russian and modern Greek. In 1892... less