For the premier of Ontario 1896–1899, see Arthur Sturgis Hardy

Arthur Sturgis Hardy

Arthur Sturgis Hardy, QC was a lawyer and Liberal politician who served as the fourth Premier of Ontario, Canada, from 1896 to 1899. On January 19, 1870 he married Mary Morrison, daughter of Judge Joseph Curran Morrison.Hardy attended school at the Rockwood Academy in Rockwood, Ontario...

.

Arthur Sherburne Hardy (usually: Arthur S. Hardy) (August 13, 1847 – March 14, 1930) was an American engineer

Engineer

An engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,...

, educator, editor

Editing

Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...

, diplomat

Diplomat

A diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organization. The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and...

, novelist, and poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

.

Early life and education

Hardy was born in 1847 in Andover, Massachusetts

Andover, Massachusetts

Andover is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. It was incorporated in 1646 and as of the 2010 census, the population was 33,201...

, the son of Alpheus and Susan W. (Holmes) Hardy. He received his elementary school education abroad and thus gained an exposure to languages. He attended Phillips Academy

Phillips Academy

Phillips Academy is a selective, co-educational independent boarding high school for boarding and day students in grades 9–12, along with a post-graduate year...

 and completed one year at Amherst College

Amherst College

Amherst College is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Amherst is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 1,744 students in the fall of 2009...

 before becoming a cadet at the United States Military Academy

United States Military Academy

The United States Military Academy at West Point is a four-year coeducational federal service academy located at West Point, New York. The academy sits on scenic high ground overlooking the Hudson River, north of New York City...

 at West Point in 1865, where he excelled in languages. He graduated tenth in the class of 1869 and was commissioned a second lieutenant

Second Lieutenant

Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces.- United Kingdom and Commonwealth :The rank second lieutenant was introduced throughout the British Army in 1871 to replace the rank of ensign , although it had long been used in the Royal Artillery, Royal...

 of artillery

Artillery

Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...

. His first duty was as assistant instructor of artillery tactics at West Point from July 6 to August 28 in the summer of 1869. He was then stationed in Fort Jefferson

Garden Key Light

The Garden Key Light, also known as the Tortuga Harbor Light, is located at Fort Jefferson, on Garden Key in the Dry Tortugas, Florida. The first lighthouse, started in 1824 and first lit in 1826, was a brick conical tower. The lighthouse and its outbuildings were the only structures on Garden Key...

 in the Dry Tortugas

Dry Tortugas

The Dry Tortugas are a small group of islands, located at the end of the Florida Keys, USA, about west of Key West, and west of the Marquesas Keys, the closest islands. Still further west is the Tortugas Bank, which is completely submerged. The first Europeans to discover the islands were the...

 in Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

. In this period after the Civil War, there was little chance of advancement in the Army so, after consulting with General William T. Sherman

William Tecumseh Sherman

William Tecumseh Sherman was an American soldier, businessman, educator and author. He served as a General in the Union Army during the American Civil War , for which he received recognition for his outstanding command of military strategy as well as criticism for the harshness of the "scorched...

, he resigned in 1870.

Career

Hardy served as a short period as an engineer locating routes for railroads. Then he became a professor of mathematics

Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

 at Grinnell College

Grinnell College

Grinnell College is a private liberal arts college in Grinnell, Iowa, U.S. known for its strong tradition of social activism. It was founded in 1846, when a group of pioneer New England Congregationalists established the Trustees of Iowa College....

 where he stayed until 1873. Then he became professor of civil engineering

Civil engineering

Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including works like roads, bridges, canals, dams, and buildings...

 in the Chandler Scientific School at Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...

, accepting the position on the condition that he be allowed to serve abroad for a year. He went to Paris where he followed the course of the Ecole des Ponts et Chausees as an eleve externe and simultaneously attended as many of the lectures as he could at the École des Beaux-Arts

École des Beaux-Arts

École des Beaux-Arts refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The most famous is the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, now located on the left bank in Paris, across the Seine from the Louvre, in the 6th arrondissement. The school has a history spanning more than 350 years,...

(School of Fine Arts), Sorbonne

Sorbonne

The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...

, and Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers

Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers

The Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers , or National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts, is a doctoral degree-granting higher education establishment operated by the French government, dedicated to providing education and conducting research for the promotion of science and industry...

(National Conservatory of Crafts and Industries). In 1878 he obtained the chair of mathematics at Dartmouth and served until 1893.

According to “The Early History of the [Dartmouth] Mathematics Department 1769–1961”:

The one example of mathematical competency was furnished by Arthur Sherburne Hardy who wrote a book on quaternion

Quaternion

In mathematics, the quaternions are a number system that extends the complex numbers. They were first described by Irish mathematician Sir William Rowan Hamilton in 1843 and applied to mechanics in three-dimensional space...

s, an adequate, if not inspiring text. It was something for Dartmouth to offer a course in such an abstruse field, and the course was actually given a few times when a student and an instructor could be found simultaneously. In 1893 Professor Hardy failed in his ambition to be elected President of Dartmouth College. He resigned, entered the diplomatic service, and was successively Ambassador to Turkey, Greece, Switzerland, and Spain. He was also a novelist with a national reputation, and if a modern generation fails to find in his books the values which their great-grandfathers found, the fact remains that his books were best-sellers in their day.

While teaching at Dartmouth, Hardy helped redesign the College Park behind his house. On his departure, he sold his house to the incoming President William Jewett Tucker

William Jewett Tucker

The Rev. William Jewett Tucker served as the 9th President of Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, United States, from 1893 to 1909.- Dartmouth presidency :...

 (the house later became the official presidential residence, a medical laboratory, and the home of a chapter of the Delta Gamma Sorority before being demolished.)

In 1893 Hardy became the editor of Cosmopolitan

Cosmopolitan (magazine)

Cosmopolitan is an international magazine for women. It was first published in 1886 in the United States as a family magazine, was later transformed into a literary magazine and eventually became a women's magazine in the late 1960s...

magazine, in which capacity he worked until 1895.

Subsequent to his academic career and publishing career, Hardy was appointed as the United States ambassador

Ambassador

An ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat who represents a nation and is usually accredited to a foreign sovereign or government, or to an international organization....

 to several countries:

• United States Minister to Persia
  United States Ambassador to Iran
  Prior to 1944, Iran was not served by a United States ambassador; instead, a diplomatic minister was sent instead. After the revolution in 1944, the first ambassador was then named....
  
  , 1897–1899
• United States Minister to Greece
  United States Ambassador to Greece
  This is a list of ambassadors from the United States to Greece.*Charles Keating Tuckerman *John M. Francis *John M. Read, Jr. *John M. Read, Jr....
  
  , 1899–1901 (this post included serving as United States Ambassador to Romania
  United States Ambassador to Romania
  A United States diplomatic representative to Romania has existed since 1880. The United States formally recognized Romania in 1878, following the Treaty of Berlin; diplomatic relations were opened in 1880, and American diplomats were sent to the country. Until the early 20th century, most...
  
   and Serbia
  United States Ambassador to Serbia
  This is a list of Ambassadors of the United States to Serbia.Serbia had been under the domination of the Ottoman Empire, Austria-Hungary, communist Yugoslavia and lastly Serbia-Montenegro Federation proclaiming independence on June 5, 2006....
  
  , as well)
• Switzerland, 1901
• Spain
  United States Ambassador to Spain
  -Ambassadors:*John Jay**Appointed: September 29, 1779**Title: Minister Plenipotentiary**Presented credentials:**Terminated mission: ~May 20, 1782*William Carmichael**Appointed: April 20, 1790**Title: Chargé d'Affaires...
  
  , 1902–1905

Hardy died in 1930 in Woodstock, Connecticut

Woodstock, Connecticut

Woodstock is a town in Windham County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 7,221 at the 2000 census.-Annual events:*The Woodstock Fair, run by the Woodstock Agricultural Society has been held since 1860. The current President of the Woodstock Fair is Susan Z. Hibbard...

. His burial location is unknown.

Novels

• But Yet a Woman (1883)
• The Wind of Destiny (1886)
• Passe Rose (1889)
• His Daughter First (1903)
• Helen (1916)
• No. 13 Rue du Bon Diable (1917)

Textbooks

• Elements of Quaternions (1881)
• Imaginary Quantities (1881), a translation of a French treatise by Jean-Robert Argand
• New Methods in Topographical Surveying (1883)
• Elements of Analytic Geometry (1889)
• Elements of Calculus (1890)

Biography

• Life and Letters of Joseph Hardy Neesima
  Joseph Hardy Neesima
  was a Japanese educator of the Meiji era, the founder of Doshisha University and Doshisha Women's College of Liberal Arts.Neesima was born in Edo , the son of a retainer of the Itakura clan of Annaka...
  
  (1891)
• Things Remembered (1923)

General references

• "ARTHUR SHERBURNE HARDY; POET, SOLDIER, NOVELIST, MATHEMATICIAN, EDITOR. Unity of His Life — The Poetry of Mathematics — military Servitude and Grandeur — The Futility of Method and the Necessity for Experience and Suffering in Art and Literary Work — Ideas on Various Interesting Subjects," article in The New York Times, November 19, 1893, p. 23.
• "A.S. HARDY DIES; FORMER DIPLOMAT; Ex-Minister to Persia Succumbs at 82 at His Home in Woodstock, Conn. WEST POINT GRADUATE He Taught Mathematics at Dartmouth in 1878-93—Was Also Noted Author," article in The New York Times, March 14, 1930, p. 16.
• "Deaths. HARDY," death notice in The New York Times, March 14, 1930. p. 16.
• "Deaths. HARDY," death notice in The New York Times, March 15, 1930. p. 14.

Sources

• United States Department of State: List of ambassadors
• The Political Graveyard: Arthur Sherburne Hardy
• Dartmouth College: The Early History of the Mathematics Department
• United States Military Academy: Biography
• United States Embassy in Madrid: Former U.S. Ambassadors And Presidential Representatives To Spain

External links