Mark Walrod Harrington (born Sycamore, Illinois, Dekalb County August 18, 1848, died in the New Jersey State Hospital (mental hospital) on September 10, 1926)

Rose Martha Smith Harrington (born New York?)

Son: Mark Raymond Harrington

Mark W. Harrington, Director 1879-91

Bently Historical Library University of Michigan (Hall of Directors)

Source: http://bentley.umich.edu/observatory/history/directors/harrington.php

Mark W. Harrington from the University of Michigan faculty and staff portrait collection

Mark Walrod Harrington was born in Sycamore, Illinois on August 18, 1848. He graduated from the University of Michigan in 1868, and received a Master's degree in 1871. After experiences such as being assistant curator of the University of Michigan Museum of Natural Science; astronomer's assistant for the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey in Alaska; and professor of astronomy in Peking, China; Harrington served as the director of the Detroit Observatory for 12 years. While director, Harrington concentrated on meteorology, and his assistants J. Martin Schaeberle, and later W. W. Campbell, directed the astronomical research. In 1884, Harrington founded The American Meteorological Journal and was its managing editor until 1892. He obtained new meteorological equipment for the Observatory, began collecting regular data, and issued daily meteorological reports. Harrington left the University of Michigan in 1891 to be the first civilian chief of the newly reorganized United States Weather Bureau, but he was removed in 1895 over concerns with his management. For a short time he served as the President of the University of Washington in Seattle, and he held other positions in the Weather Bureau until he retired in 1899 due to failing physical and mental health. Soon after, he departed from home to attend a dinner and was not seen again for nearly a decade. In 1907, he was placed in a mental institution under the name of "'John Doe," where he was discovered by his wife and son a year later. His mental condition improved, though never enough for him to be released from the institution, where he died in 1926.

Stargazing: 150 Years of Astronomy at the University of Michigan: Faculty Profiles

Mark W. Harrington, From UM Faculty and Staff

Source: http://141.211.144.33/exhibits/astro/faculty.php

An interesting figure indeed, Mark Harrington served as director of the Observatory for twelve years, from 1879-1891. Students appreciated his accessible teaching style, and he advocated for new student observing equipment, as well as additional classroom space. Harrington published articles on botanical subjects and a plant identification guide; he'd previously held professorial appointments in botany, zoology, and geology. Like most other University of Michigan professors, Harrington was well traveled. Before assuming the directorship, Harrington participated in geological surveys in Alaska. Later, while an astronomy professor and Observatory director, had spent one year (1876) of study in Leipzig, Germany, with an addition year (1877) teaching astronomy and mathematics in Beijing, China.

In 1891, Harrington left Ann Arbor to become Chief of the National Weather Bureau, a post he held for three subsequent years. His experience at the Weather Bureau soured; he proved to be a poor manager when in charge of non- scientists and non-academics. The situation became so unbearable that Harrington was removed from duty. In retrospect, it was likely during his time at the Weather Bureau when his mental illness moved from a latent to more active state. Harrington then moved to Seattle to assume the presidency for the Territorial University of Washington (Washington did not become a state until 1889). The political climate at the University was turbulent and Harrington experienced leadership difficulties. He resigned his post two years later. After several intervening years, Harrington re-entered the Weather Bureau for one year (1898-1899), before retiring due to poor health. One day, he wandered away from home, saying that he was going out for dinner, and that was the last any of his family saw of him until 1908. He had no recollection of his name or history when he applied for shelter at a police station in Newark, NJ in 1907. During his absence, he worked menial jobs in China, Washington State, Louisiana, but perhaps other places as well. Some speculate that Harrington returned to places where he had previously worked. Though Harrington's family located him in an asylum, his mental state never improved to the point where he could return home and resume his duties. He died in 1926 at the New Jersey State Hospital at Morris Plains. In a letter about Harrington the Hospital Medical Director wrote,

"In regard to your inquiry of recent date concerning Prof. Mark W. Harrington, I will say that there has not been any apparent change in his mental condition during the last two years. He will not recognize his former identity or give any information concerning his previous history and experience. He claims to have undergone a complete metamorphosis in his personality and insists that his legal name is John Doe. If you desire to communicate with him you might address him as John Doe #8, Greystone Park, NJ." 2

Harrington's case is clearly one of the most sensational faculty histories in the department--his situation was widely covered by the newspapers of the day.

University of Washington Presidents: Mark Walrod Harrington

Retrieved from: http://www.lib.washington.edu/specialcoll/exhibits/presidents/harrington.html

Born in Sycamore, Illinois in 1848 Harrington attended the University of Michigan and received his MA and MS degrees in 1868. He began his teaching career at the University of Michigan and taught there until 1876. Between 1876 and his recruitment as President of the University of Washington in 1895 Harrington studied at the University of Leipzig, Germany, served as a professor of Mathematics at the University of Peking, China, and was appointed Chief of the Weather Bureau in Washington, D.C. When Harrington was removed from the Weather Bureau by President Grover Cleveland he was recruited as President of the University of Washington. He served as president of the University from 1895 until 1897. He returned to the Weather Bureau in 1898 and retired in June 1899. Harrington disappeared from his home in October of 1899. Harrington was not found until being identified by his wife at the State Hospital in Morristown, New Jersey in 1908, where he had been admitted as "John Doe No. VIII", after she had seen a newspaper article about a brilliant but unknown patient at the hospital. According to his wife mental condition was a result of being struck by lightning on the University of Washington Campus during his tenure as President. Harrington never recovered and he died in the New Jersey State Hospital on September 10, 1926

Mark Raymond Harrington (born Ann Arbor, Michigan July 6, 1882—June 30, 1971) MRH had three wives, not one as is listed

Anna Alexander Johns (Married, 1917, died on August 13, 1927 of an unspecified "brief illness.")

Second wife: Edna L. Parker, AKA Nandaka or Endeka (married December, 1927. Descendant of the famous Seneca religious leader of the Iroquois, Handsome Lake. She was also the sister of Arthur C. Parker, died September 20, 1948)

Third wife: Marie Toma Walsh (born Apr. 19, 1907 died Jun. 13, 1986, Married April, 1949)

Son: Johns Heye Harrington (this is the correct name, not John Hayne as he was named using his mother's maiden name Johns and George Heye's last name)

Archives, Manuscripts, Photographs Catalog: Smithsonian Institution Research Information System (SIRIS)

Mark Raymond Harrington Bio/Notes

Retrieved from: http://siris-archives.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?uri=full=3100001~!248753!0

Mark Raymond Harrington was born on the campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor on July 6, 1882. He received his BS in 1907 and his MA in 1908 from Columbia University, where he studied under Franz Boas. He met George Heye while working at Covert’s Indian store in New York in 1908 and Heye hired him shortly thereafter. Harrington spent from 1908-1911 visiting and collecting from tribes in the east and Midwest for Heye. From 1911-1915 Harrington was assistant curator at the University of Pennsylvania Museum. From 1916-1917 he conducted archeological surveys in Cuba and Arkansas, after which he spent a short time in the U.S. Army during the First World War. After his return in 1919 he started a series of archeological surveys in Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Nevada, and Texas. Harrington worked for George G. Heye as an archaeologist, ethnologist, field collector, and curator, primarily along the eastern seaboard, in the south, Midwest, west, Cuba and Ecuador, from 1908 to 1928. He then joined the staff of the Southwest Museum as curator until his retirement in 1964. He died in San Fernando, California on June 30, 1971. Harrington is the author of many books and several hundred articles. A partial bibliography can be found in the Mark Raymond Harrington manuscript collection in the archives of the National Museum of the American Indian, Cultural Resource Center, Suitland, Maryland.