John Lawson Stoddard

John Lawson Stoddard (April 24, 1850 – June 5, 1931) was an American lecturer, author and photographer. He was a pioneer in the use of the stereopticon or magic lantern, adding photographs to his popular lectures about his travels around the world.

In 1935, Daniel Crane Taylor wrote, "Stoddard's rise to fame was spectacular and unprecedented in the annals of American entertainers. No American lecturer, musician, or actor has ever won so large a following in so short a time. From his second season, almost every lecture was sold out…He filled Daly's Theatre, one of the largest in New York, fifty times a season for ten years. …This would mean that Stoddard alone drew approximately one hundred thousand persons in New York each year." He was the son of Sarah Lothrop and Lewis Tappan Stoddard. He studied theology at Yale Divinity School for two years, but left before he graduated. In 1891, Stoddard is also believed to be the first person to refer to the Jews as "a country without a nation," a phrase that would later become popular with Zionists in Europe. Glimpses of the world; a Portfolio of Photographs.(1892) Napoléon: from Corsica to St. Helena (1894) A Trip Around the World with John L. Stoddard: a Collection of Photo-Engravings (1894) Portfolio of Photographs of Our Country and Our Neighbors (1894) Portfolio of Photographs - Photographic View of the Entire World of Nature and Art (1894) Scenic America, the Beauties of the Western Hemisphere (1897) Athens-Venice: Illustrated and Embellished with one-hundred and twenty-one Reproductions of Photographs (1897) China: Illustrated and Embellished with one-hundred and twenty-two Reproductions of Photographs (1897) Egypt: Illustrated and Embellished with one-hundred and nineteen Reproductions of Photographs (1897) India: Illustrated and Embellished with one-hundred and twelve Reproductions of Photographs (1897) Japan: Illustrated and Embellished with one-hundred and thirty-eight Reproductions of Photographs (1897) Jerusalem: Illustrated and Embellished with one-hundred and twenty-one Reproductions of Photographs (1897) Norway: Illustrated and Embellished with one-hundred and twenty-eight Reproductions of Photographs (1897) Switzerland: Illustrated and Embellished with one-hundred and twenty-one Reproductions of Photographs (1897) The Passion Play: Illustrated and Embellished with one-hundred and nineteen Reproductions of Photographs (1897) John L. Stoddard Lectures, v. 1 Norway, Switzerland, Athens, Venice (1897). John L. Stoddard Lectures, v. 2 Constantinople, Jerusalem, Egypt(1897). John L. Stoddard Lectures, v. 3 Japan I, Japan II, China (1897). John L. Stoddard Lectures, v. 4 India I, India II, The Passion Play (1897). John L. Stoddard Lectures, v. 5 Paris, La Belle France, Spain (1897). John L. Stoddard Lectures, v. 6 Berlin, Vienna, St. Petersburg, Moscow (1898). John L. Stoddard Lectures, v. 7 The Rhine, Belgium, Holland, Mexico (1898). John L. Stoddard Lectures, v. 8 Florence, Naples, Rome (1898). John L. Stoddard Lectures, v. 9 Scotland, England, London (1898). John L. Stoddard Lectures, v. 10 Southern California, Grand Cañon of the Colorado River, Yellowstone National Park (1898). From the Atlantic to the Pacific (1899) Famous Parks and Buildings of America (1899) John L. Stoddard Lectures Supplementary volumes: no. 2 / v. 12: Canada I. Canada II, Malta. Gibraltar (1901). John L. Stoddard Lectures Supplementary volumes: no. 3 / v. 13: South Tyrol. Around Lake Garda. The Dolomites (1901). John L. Stoddard Lectures Supplementary volumes: no. 4 / v. 14: Sicily. Genoa. A drive through the Engadine (1901). John L. Stoddard Lectures Supplementary volumes: no. 5 / v. 15: Lake Como. The upper Danube. Bohemia (1901). Gibraltar 1–6 (1901). Beautiful Scenes of America (1902) Rebuilding a Lost Faith, by an American Agnostic (1922) Poems on Lake Como (1914) Rebuilding a Lost Faith (1921) Why Is It? (1915) Wilson oder Hughes?(1916) Was sollen wir mit Wilson tun? America and Germany (1916) Prat, Fernand. The Theology of Saint Paul, Volume 1 (1926) Verkade, Willibrord. Yesterdays of an Artist-Monk (1930) One literary critic notes, "The Stoddard Lectures serve as a literary backdrop to the performance of Jay Gatsby, who had never read them, who had never cut the pages, but who staged his production elaborately and well, going as far as to buy not only real books but also the right kind of real books."

Personal life Stoddard married Mary Brown of Bangor, Maine on December 24, 1877. She was the daughter of Dr. William H. Brown, who was the mayor of Bangor. They had a son in 1883, Lothrop Stoddard. After some five years, the couple became estranged. When he retired from the lecture circuit in 1897, Stoddard moved to New York City. They divorced in 1900. He married Ida M. O'Donnell of Barnesville, Ohio on August 15, 1901.

After his second marriage, Stoddard moved to the Austrian Tyrol. Around 1906, he moved to Lake Como in Italy. In 1914, he moved to a villa near Merano, South Tyrol, Italy.

In 1917, Stoddard nearly died from typhus, leading him back to religion. Raised a Protestant, Stoddard was an agnostic for more than thirty years before converting, along with his wife, to Roman Catholicism in 1922.

During his later life, Stoddard used his fortune to support his adopted home of Merano. He contributed to building a secondary school and to a home for homeless youth, now used as a rehabilitation center.

Stoddard died in 1931 at his villa near Merano, Italy, at the age of 81.