Henry Wood

Henry Wood (1849–1925) was an American Professor of German Studies at Johns Hopkins University.

Early life and education Wood was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1849 to Henry Taber Wood and Anna Greene Russell, and schooled in Providence, Rhode Island.

He graduated from Haverford College in 1869, with an interest in German culture. Wood enrolled in Berlin University in 1875, where he studied classical philology. He then moved on to University of Leipzig where he studied modern languages. Amongst his tutors were some of the leading German literature historians of the time.

In 1879, he completed his Ph.D. with a dissertation on Geoffrey Chaucer's literary influence on James I of Scotland.

Career In 1881, Wood was appointed Associate (Instructor) in English at Johns Hopkins University (JHU). Since its founding, JHU aimed to draw influence from the German educational system, knowledge of which Wood was able to mention in his application. At the same meeting he was elected President of the Society. At the tenth annual meeting in 1898, Wood's Presidential Address was titled 'Folk-lore and Metaphor in Literary Style'.

He was also a member of the Baltimore branch of the AFS: he was present at its first meeting in 1895 where he was elected President of the branch.

Wood was made a Ritter dritter Klasse des königlich preußischen Ordens Roter Adler (Knight Third Class of the Royal Prussian Order of the Red Eagle) by Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1910. This was in recognition of Wood's contribution to German studies in the US, but it may also have reflected the connections between the von Kretschman family and the royal court.

Selected publications