View source for George Frederick Barker

{{Other people|George Barker}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = George Frederick Barker
| image              = George F. Barker cph.3b15338.jpg
| birth_date         = 1835 7 14
| birth_place        = Charlestown, Massachusetts
| death_date         = 1910  5 24
| occupation         = American, physicist, and scientist
}}
'''George Frederick Barker''' (July 14, 1835, in [[Charlestown, Massachusetts]]<ref name="Marquis">[https://archive.org/details/whoswhoinamerica02marq/page/57/mode/2up BARKER, George Frederick], in ''[[Who's Who in America]]'', 1901-1902 edition; via [[archive.org]]</ref> – May 24, 1910) was an [[united States|American]] [[physician]] and [[scientist]].

== Life and History ==
He graduated from the [[Sheffield Scientific School|Yale Scientific School]] in 1858. He was successively chemical assistant in [[Harvard Medical School]] in 1858–1859 and 1860–1861, [[professor]] of [[chemistry]] and [[geology]] in [[Wheaton College, Illinois|Wheaton (Ill.) College]]. In 1864 he became the Professor of Natural Science at the [[University of Pittsburgh|Western University of Pennsylvania]], now known as the [[University of Pittsburgh]], where he undertook experiments to produce electric light by passing the current through a resisting filament which he claimed was "the first steady electric light generated in [[Pittsburgh]], if not in the country".<ref>{{citation | url=http://digital.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=pittmiscpubs;cc=pittmiscpubs;rgn=full%20text;idno=00a805098m;didno=00a805098m;view=image;seq=11;node=00a805098m%3A2;page=root;size=s;frm=frameset; | title=History of the University of Pittsburgh| first=William Jacob | last=Holland | pages=8–10 | year=c. 1901 | access-date=2010-01-13}}</ref> He subsequently went to Yale as a professor of [[physiological chemistry]] and [[toxicology]], and later was a professor of [[physics]] at the [[University of Pennsylvania]], in 1879–1900, when he became [[emeritus]] professor.  He served as [[President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science|president]] of the [[American Association for the Advancement of Science]] in 1879; president of the [[American Chemical Society]]; vice-president of the [[American Philosophical Society]] (elected 1873)<ref>{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=1873&year-max=1873&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2021-05-03|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref> for 10 years; a member of the United States Electrical Commission; and for several years an associate editor of the ''[[American Journal of Science]]''.  He lectured in many cities and wrote a ''Text-Book of Elementary Chemistry'' (1870); a ''Physics'' (1892); and more.

In a history of the University of Pennsylvania published upon its bicentennial in 1940, the historian [[Edward Potts Cheyney]] recalled the piecemeal entry of women into the university, initially as auditors only, and noted, as Cheyney himself witnessed, that "in the lectures on physics in 1881 two young women sat meekly in a distant corner while Professor Barker was describing the new inventions of the electric light and telephone."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Cheyney|first=Edward Potts|title=History of the University of Pennsylvania, 1740-1940|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|year=1940|location=Philadelphia|pages=304}}</ref>

==References==
{{wikisource|works=or}}
* {{NIE|title=George Frederick Barker}}
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*{{Commons category-inline}}
* {{cite BDA1906 |wstitle= Barker, George Frederick |volume= 1 |page = 211 |short=}}
*[http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/barker-george-f.pdf National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir]

{{Wheaton College}}
{{Presidents of the American Chemical Society}}
{{Presidents of the American Association for the Advancement of Science}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barker, George Frederick}}
[[Category:1835 births]]
[[Category:1910 deaths]]
[[Category:Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science alumni]]
[[Category:Harvard Medical School faculty]]
[[Category:University of Pittsburgh faculty]]
[[Category:University of Pennsylvania faculty]]
[[Category:American science writers]]
[[Category:American chemists]]
[[Category:Wheaton College (Illinois) faculty]]
[[Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society]]
[[Category:North Yarmouth Academy alumni]]
[[Category:Presidents of the American Association for the Advancement of Science]]