Alexander Stewart Hunter continued in his role as “Special Lecturer in English literature” until he left the university in 1918.
Lincoln Robinson Gibbs (1868-1943) received his BA from Wesleyan and his MA from Harvard. He joined the University of Pittsburgh as a Professor of English in 1910, where, according to Agnes Lynch Starrett, he was “a worthy member of a line of scholarly gentlemen.” He edited and prepared the introduction for the Standard English Classics edition of Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1898) and then two subsequent collections from the work of Coleridge (1916) and Browning (1927). Gibbs developed a course on short story-writing where students studied the construction of published stories; the course was offered for the first time in 1914. Gibbs also supervised the University’s Literary Club. Gibbs served as head of the English Department from 1910 – 1922 when he left Pittsburgh to teach at the University of Miami and, later, Antioch College. Gibbs’ students included Hervey Allen, the novelist and author of Anthony Adverse; Kenneth Gould, editor of Scholastic Magazine; Frederick P. Mayer, who would later serve as Chair of the University of Pittsburgh English department; and W.K. Leonard, poet and critic.
John Kamerer Miller: Assistant Professor of English
Frank Hardy Lane: Assistant Professor of Public Speaking
John Valente: Assistant Professor of English
Instructors
For the first time, there is an extended list of non-professorial faculty, instructors (mostly), most of whom are on the faculty roster for only a year or two.
George Mahaffey Patterson Baird (1887-1970), Instructor in English, grew up in Avalon, Pennsylvania. He attended the University of Pittsburgh between the years 1905 and 1909, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree. During his college years he was especially involved in the campus publications. He joined the faculty in 1916. Baird wrote the lyrics to the University of Pittsburgh Alma Mater. He was also involved with the Scottish Room Committee and suggested the name Panthers for the football team. In 1917, he went on leave to join the Army. After the war, he began a career with Pittsburgh’s Department of City Planning. When he retired in 1961, he had risen to the position of senior research analyst. Baird also wrote and produced several one-act plays, the most well-known of which is perhaps Mirage (first performed in 1916 by the Pitt Players). He was the author of The Book of Words of the Pageant and Masque of Freedom, a pantomime performed in Forbes Field, October 31-November 12th, 1916, with words spoken by concealed readers or sung by a chorus. The pageant celebrated the spirit of freedom as expressed by Pittsburgh’s first settlers. In 1916, Baird also published two children’s plays, “Morality Interludes for Children,” in The Ladies Home Journal.
Louis Franklin Snow served as an Instructor in English and Public Speaking in 1913 and 1914, in 1914 he also served as the University Librarian. Louis F. Snow graduated from Brown University in 1887 and earned a Master of Arts at Harvard in 1890. In 1892 he became the first dean of the Women’s College at Brown University, a position he resigned in 1900 to attend Columbia University, where he received his PhD. He taught at a variety of institutions before joining the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh. After leaving Pittsburgh, Brown served as chair of the English Department and librarian, University of the Philippines, 1914-1918. In 1921, he was appointed Professor of English at the University of Chattanooga, where he remained until his retirement in 1931.
Sarah Agnes Scutter (b. 1880) graduated from Wesleyan University in 1904. She taught high school in New Jersey from 1905-1908. In June 1908, she married the Reverend George Avery Neeld, who took a position as a pastor at the Oakland Methodist Church in Pittsburgh (Forbes and Bouquet). The church was a Wesley Foundation Church and served as a religious center for the students at the University of Pittsburgh. Sarah Neeld was the first woman to teach English in the English department at Pitt. She taught for a brief period, from 1918 to 1920, when Rev. Neeld was appointed as Director and first Professor at the newly organized Ohio School of Religion, part of the Ohio State University. Sarah Neeld did graduate work at Ohio State from 1920-1921. We did not find evidence that she joined the faculty.
Other Instructors included:
Elvertus Franklin Biddle, Instructor in Public Speaking
Carl Frederick Ohliger, Instructor in English
Vincent Holland Ogburn, Fellow in English
Arthur Edward Fish, Instructor in Public Speaking
Mark Clement Hoffman, Instructor in English
Charles Fletcher Lewis, Instructor in English
Louis Jay Heath, Instructor in English
Charles Morris Cristler, Instructor in English
Edwin Graham Bothwell, Instructor
Allan Davis, Instructor in Techniques of Drama
Rufus William McCulloch, Instructor in English
John McClung Brownlee, Instructor in English
Edwin Berry Burgum, Instructor in English
Lois Broudy, Instructor in English
Lebbeus Heinz Frantz, Instructor in English
Jonathan Leo Zerbe, Instructor in English