Henry Hartshorne

author

Henry Hartshorne

1823–1897

A 19th-century Philadelphia physician who also wrote poetry, popular household guides, and an early future-looking novella, he brought scientific curiosity to a surprisingly wide range of subjects. His life later took him from American lecture halls to Japan, where he died in 1897.

1 Audiobook

1931: A Glance at the Twentieth Century

1931: A Glance at the Twentieth Century

by Henry Hartshorne

About the author

Born in Philadelphia on March 16, 1823, Henry Hartshorne was trained as a physician, studying at Haverford College and later earning his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He went on to build a career as a doctor, teacher, and medical writer, with teaching roles connected to the University of Pennsylvania, Haverford College, and the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania.

Hartshorne was also a notably versatile author. Alongside medical texts and public-health writing, he wrote poetry and compiled practical household reference works. He is also remembered in speculative fiction for 1931: A Glance at the Twentieth Century (1881), a short work that imagined the future in optimistic, reform-minded terms.

Late in life, Hartshorne traveled to Japan, and he died in Tokyo on February 10, 1897. The surviving record suggests a figure whose interests ranged well beyond medicine: education, domestic life, literature, and social improvement all found a place in his work.