Arthur Kingsley Porter


Arthur Kingsley Porter was an American archaeologist, art historian and medievalist. He was Chair of Harvard University’s Art History Department, and was the first American scholar of Romanesque Architecture to achieve international recognition. Porter disappeared in 1933. His most significant artistic contribution was his revolutionary studies and insights into the spread of Romanesque sculpture. His study of Lombard architecture also remains the first in its class. He left his Cambridge mansion, Elmwood, to Harvard University, where it has served as the official residence of Harvard's President since 1970.

Early life

Porter was born on February 16, 1883 in Darien, Connecticut, the third son born to a wealthy family. The family also kept a residence in New York City. Porter prepared at the Browning School in New York City, alongside classmate John D. Rockefeller Jr. He then attended Yale University, as had his father, Timothy Hopkins Porter, and his two older brothers, Louis Hopkins Porter and Blachley Hoyt Porter, several uncles and cousins. Porter had intended to study law. He had an experience while traveling in France and seeing Coutances Cathedral that made him interested in architecture.

Family

Arthur Kingsley Porter was the son of Timothy Hopkins Porter and Maria Louisa Hoyt, one of the first women to graduate from Vassar College. When Porter's parents married in 1870 they merged two of Connecticut's oldest and most influential families, both having arrived in Connecticut in the early 1600s.
In a biography of Porter's life, it was said of the Porters:
And of the Hoyt family:
The Porter family was known for being understated and private with matters having to do with the extent of their wealth. A New York Times article in October 1924 reported on the largest taxpayers in that city, with Arthur Kingsley Porter and his brother Louis listed therein. The article exposed that Louis Hopkins Porter had paid more taxes in 1923 than the estate of John Jacob Astor IV, several Rockefeller family members, and the same amount as William Randolph Hearst.
He married Lucy Bryant Wallace in 1912 in New York City; she acted as chief photographer for the pair from 1919 onwards, and was known during their marriage as Lucy Queensley Porter. They eventually moved on to Italy, and then Greece and Spain, and finally to Ireland.
Arthur Porter disappeared at age 50, in July 1933. He was outside during a storm on Inishbofin Island, near Glenveagh Castle, his home in Ireland, and was presumed drowned. His wife later told the coroner of her six hour search with two local fishermen. The inquest concluded that he had probably died from misadventure.

Notable Relatives

Porter has been referred to as a ‘real-life Indiana Jones’. He was unique in the academic community, given he was a multimillionaire in his own right, with his own European castle, and the means to travel extensively, often for more than a year at a time. He was so respected that the University let him do so.
Sarcophagus Curse
While his overall station and manner of teaching, exploring, researching and writing certainly fit this ‘Indiana Jones’ profile, perhaps nothing made this a more fitting comparison than the incident with the Sarcophagus Commissioned by Count Pedro Ansùrez in 1093, for his young son Alfonso.
Porter came into possession of the sarcophagus, and took it to Harvard as a gift to the University's Fogg Museum, where it was prominently displayed. The Sarcophagus enabled Porter to prove his theory on the spread of Romanesque Sculpture:
In 1931, the Duke of Alba discovered the Sarcophagus had been removed from Lèon and brought to Harvard by Porter. The Spanish Government became involved with the negotiations with Harvard, but before any deal was reached, Alfonso XIII of Spain was overthrown by a revolution, and so the slab remained on display at Harvard in 1931. Negotiations resumed in 1933, and Porter consented for the Sarcophagus lid to be returned to Léon during that year.

Residences

Throughout his career, Porter wrote 293 works that were published in 934 publications, in 7 languages, with 7,452 library holdings. Porter's photographic collection contains 35,000 photographs and 11,700 negatives, pertaining to every aspect of medieval art.