BRIEF SKETCH OF WHITNEY'S LIFE
BY THE EDITOR
William Dwight Whitney was born at Northampton, Massachusetts, February 9, 1827, and died at New Haven, Connecticut, on Thursday, June 7, 1894, aged sixty-seven years and nearly four months. He was son of Josiah Dwight and Sarah (Williston) Whitney. The father, Josiah Dwight Whitney (1786-1869), was born in Westfield, oldest son of Abel Whitney (Harvard, 1773) and of Clarissa Dwight, daughter of Josiah Dwight. The mother was daughter of the Rev. Payson Williston (Yale, 1783) of Easthampton, and sister of the Hon. Samuel Williston, the founder of Williston Seminary. The father was a business man in Northampton, and later manager, first as cashier and then as president, of the Northampton Bank, and was widely and honorably known for his ability and integrity. William was one of a goodly family of children, of whom may be named, as devoted to scientific and literary pursuits, the eldest, Josiah Dwight Whitney (Yale, 1839), for a long time the head of the Geological Survey of California and from 1865 to 1896 Professor of Geology in Harvard University; Miss Maria Whitney, the first incumbent of the chair of Modern Languages in Smith College; James Lyman Whitney (Yale, 1856), since 1869 a member of the Administrative Staff of the Boston Public Library and its head from 1899 to 1903; and Henry Mitchell Whitney (Yale, 1864), from 1871 to 1899 Professor of English in Beloit College.
Whitney made his preparation for college entirely in the free public schools of his native town, entered the Sophomore class of Williams College in 1842, and was graduated in 1845. He then spent three full years in service in the bank, under his father. Early in 1848 he took up the study of Sanskrit. In the spring of 1849 he left the bank; spent the summer as assistant in the Geological Survey of the Lake Superior region, and in the autumn went for a year to New Haven, to continue his Sanskrit studies under Professor Edward E. Salisbury and in company with James Hadley, and to prepare for a visit to Germany, already planned. On May 22, 1850, he was elected a corporate member of the American Oriental Society. He sailed (for Bremen) September 20, 1850. The next three winters were passed by him in Berlin and the summers of 1851 and 1852 in Tübingen, chiefly under the instruction of Professors
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