Byron was a man shaped by passion, texture, and depth. He was one fashioned by many facets in life; as like any man, he celebrated his great victories while learning and improving from his defeats.  For one, he was a leader of the Romantic poetry revolution.  Also, Byron was a big encourager of liberty through his works and deeds by pouring his time, money, and energy into the Greek War.  There are so many aspects of Lord Byron’s life to wrap up in one blog, so here are some of the most intriguing. 

George Gordon Noel Byron was born in London, England on January 22, 1788.   Unfortunately, George was born with the tremendous undertaking of having to deal with the difficulties that were associated with having a clubbed foot.  This didn’t discourage him for a second.  Byron was barely out of adolescence when in 1798 the death of his great uncle, the fifth “Wicked” Lord Byron, forever changed his life. Overnight he transformed into the sixth Byron of Rochdale, heir to Newstead Abby.  After being financially blessed, Byron began attending school immediately. His earlier years of formal education can be traced back to Aberdeen Grammar School.  Then, with his new title in hand, in August 1799 he entered the school of Dr. William Glennie, in Dulwich.  In 1801 he was sent to Harrow, where he remained until July 1805. 

In the summer of 1803, Byron fell head over heels with his distant cousin, Mary Chaworth.  Byron interrupted his education for a semester to follow his heart and be near her.  Unsuccessful and defeated he returned to Harrow where he finished out the year.  Devastation seemed to be instrumental for Byron; it launched his passion for poetry.  It has been said some of his first and best work was based on Mary including; "Hills of Annesley" (written 1805), "The Adieu" (written 1807), "Stanzas to a Lady on Leaving England" (written 1809), and "The Dream" (written 1816).  To help cope with the dissolution of his relationship with Mary, in 1804 he began an intimate connection with his half sister, Augusta.  He boldly requested that she consider him "not only as a Brother" but as her "warmest and most affectionate Friend." It appeared almost as a shift, as he grew apart from his coarse, often violent, mother, his feelings to Augusta began to blossom. Byron attended Trinity College, Cambridge, intermediately from October 1805 until July 1808 when he completed his M.A. degree.  During his educational pursuit, he met and formed a close bond with John Edleston, a choirboy at Trinity.  Their connection was so instantaneous that Byron deemed him his Protégé.  He later revealed, it was "the most romantic period of my life," and even though it was "violent, though pure, love and passion”.

Byron led a very nomadic life and enjoyed traveling to different countries lending a hand anyway he could.  For some time he was a nobleman in the Grand Tour.  Deciding to shift gears after the Napoleonic War, he traveled to Portugal, Athens, and even making his way to Smyrna.  Leaving traces of himself wherever he went. In 1816, Byron was forced to leave England permanently to escape allegations of incest and sodomy.  This freed Byron to be able to express his sexuality completely.  He finally decided to settle in Italy from 1812-1823.  Things took a sudden shift when 1823 he was approached by representatives to gain support from the movement for Greek independence from the Ottoman Empire.  Without any hesitation, Byron immediately got the backing of his banker and Captain Roberts.  On July 16th Byron left the dock at Genoa after chartering the Brig Hercules to take him to Kefalonia in the Ionian Islands on August 4th.  Sadly, on February 15th 1824, Byron fell ill, and the usual remedy of bloodletting weakened him further.   He made a partial recovery, however in early April another round of a violent cold, which used therapeutic bleeding as treatment, was unsuccessful.  It is suspected this treatment, carried out with unsterilized medical instrumentation, may have caused him to develop sepsis.  He developed a violent fever, and died on April 19, 1824.

Clara Harlowe Barton was an American pioneer who was capable of achieving whatever goals she set her mind to accomplish.  Clara was born on December 25, 1821 in New Oxford, Massachusetts to Captain Stephen and Sarah Barton.  Barton was the youngest of 5 children.  She spent brief periods of time in public schools, but most of her education came from her 4 older siblings.  Quite rare for times, by the age of 4, Clara was able to spell highly complicated words.  Life definitely didn’t come easy to Clara.  She unfortunately began to understand this when at the fragile age of 6; her older sister Dolly had a mental breakdown.   It is said that Dolly’s break down was due to the stress of taking care of their emotionally unbalanced mother.  Not only was she academically inclined, however, at the age of 11 an innate gift for nursing unveiled almost overnight.  Young Clara single handedly decided to take on the responsibility of completely caring for her brother David, who became completely incapacitated after a tragic work accident.

 At the impressionable age of 15, Clara’s life took a dramatic shift when L. N. Fowler, a noted phrenologist, demanded Barton's parents have her teach school.  In 1839, Clara passed her final examination and began her 10 year teaching career in school districts near Oxford, Massachusetts.  Her natural ability seemed to flow with whatever she did.  As the schools she taught at won prizes in discipline excellence, she was rewarded with new job offers including a premium salary.  In 1854, suffering from overload, Clara decided to go on a hiatus from teaching to pursue some refreshment courses of her own.  She voyaged to Clinton, New York to the Clinton Liberal Institute where she studied analytic geometry, calculus, astronomy, mathematics, and natural science, as well as French, German, ancient history, philosophy, and religion.  When the term was over she was invited to stay with a friend in Hightstown, New Jersey.   Delighted by the area, soon after she was teaching in nearby Cedarville school and later in Bordentown.  It was in New Jersey, where Clara started the state’s first free public school.  The attendance sky rocketed to 600 under Clara’s leadership; however, instead of hiring Clara as head of the school they hired a man.  In dismay, she moved to Washington D.C. to begin work as a clerk in the U.S. Patent Office.  

Barton resigned her position in the Patent Office once the Civil War started to devote herself to the care of wounded soldiers.  In April 1961 she established an agency to obtain and distribute her own medical supplies to wounded soldiers.  For close to a year, she passionately lobbied the U.S. Army and in July 1862 was granted permission to travel behind the lines.  In 1865, President Abraham Lincoln assigned Barton with the exceptionally challenging task of directing the search for more than 20,000 Union Army men.  As the war began to slow, Clara was sent to Andersonville, Georgia to identify and mark the graves of some 13,000 Union soldiers buried there.  In 1869, under doctor recommendation Clara took a restful trip to Europe.  During a stop in Switzerland, she met Dr. Louis Appia, and, for the first time, heard about the International Red Cross. Unfortunately, the United States had not been a participant in the Geneva Convention of 1864, which made the International Red Cross possible, so Barton didn't learn of its existence until traveling in Europe.  While in Europe, she developed a friendship with the Grand Dutchess.  With the support of the Grand Dutchess and International Red Cross, in 1870 Barton went to the battlefield and to aid the overwhelmed city of Strasbourg, France.  Sadly, in 1873 Clara began to suffer from nervous exhaustion, she returned to the United States and in 1876 she moved to Dansville, New York.  Promptly after arriving home, Clara’s work began rallying to have the US join in this treaty; vowing to not only establish an equally successful American Association of the Red Cross in the United States, but vouching to expand on original idea of the Red Cross and coming up with inventive ideas incorporating ways to assist people should any great national disasters occur.  This contribution awarded the United States the "Good Samaritan of Nations" label.  Barton held the title of President of the American National Red Cross for twenty-two years.  Under her leadership, she implemented the framework of the Red Cross to fit the needs of the United States not only during wartime but in peacetime.  

 Barton was an accomplished educator, hard-working woman, and devote activist who always saw through every project until the end.  She had an array of friends including Susan B. Anthony and Lucy Stone whom she enjoyed spending her later years with.  Barton herself was notably the most decorated American woman, receiving the Iron Cross, the Cross of Imperial Russia, and the International Red Cross Medal.  Her final contribution was founding the National First Aid Society in 1904, which later became part of the American Red Cross.  Clara retired from the American Red Cross as President of the organization in 1904 at the age of 83.  She quietly returned to Glen Echo, Maryland where she spent her remaining years.  Clara Barton passed away on April 12, 1912 in her home due to complications of a cold.

Marie Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun was an 18th century neoclassical and rococo French painter who was born in Paris, France on April 16, 1755.  Being the daughter of a portraitist and fan painter, Louis Vigée, there was no delay in starting her with her first instruction.  Until the age of six, she was sent to live with her relatives in Épernon.  At which point, Mary Louise entered a convent for the subsequent five years.  Then in 1767, Mary Louise’s Father died due to an infection from surgery trying to dislodge a fishbone from his throat.  Shortly after, in 1768, Mary Louise’s Mother remarried a wealthy jeweler, by the name of Jacques-Francois Le Sèvre which led the family to relocate to the rue Saint-Honoré, close to the Palais Royal.  By the time she was in her early teens, Marie Louise was being hired to professionally paint.

On August 7, 1775 Marie Louise married Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Le Brun, a well known painter and art dealer.  As Le Brun’s career began to flourish, she was requested to paint portraits of many of the nobility of the day.  She was even invited to the Palace of Versailles to paint Marie Antoinette.  Supremely elated by the result of her first portrait, Queen Antoinette hired Marie Louise for the next six years, creating a collection of over 30 portraits of the Queen and her family.  Then, finally on 12 February 1780, Le Brun and her husband were overjoyed when her daughter, Jeanne Julie Louise finally made her debut.  After the devastating arrest of the royal family during the French Revolution, Le Brun fled France with Julie.  They became very migratory, as traveling from spot to spot became a habit.  Their travels included Russia, Italy, and Austria which contributed to the increase of her gift.  While in Saint Petersburg, Le Brun was selected to become a member of the Academy of Fine Arts of Saint Petersburg.  Just a short time later, her daughter, Julie married a Russian nobleman. 

After a long tedious campaign on her behalf led by her ex husband and other family members to have her name removed from the record of counter revolutionary émigrés, Marie Louise was finally able to return to France under the rein of Napoleon I.  Beginning in the start of the 19th century, she visited Europe painting the portrait of several British nobles including Lord Byron.  In 1807, she ventured to Switzerland and was made an honorary member of the Société pour l'Avancement des Beaux-Arts of Geneva.  She published two memoirs in 1835 & 1837 which were staples that provided a dynamic account of her life and times.  Marie Louise stayed in Paris until her death on March 30, 1842 at which point her body was taken back to Louveciennes and buried in the Cimetière de Louveciennes near her old home.  Engraved on her tombstone is, "Ici, enfin, je repose, which means" Here, at last, I rest”.  Le Brun left a legacy of 660 portraits and over 200 landscapes not including her private collections.  Her works of art may be found at major museums, such as Hermitage Museum, London's National Gallery, in Europe as well as the United States.

Johann Wolfgang Dobereiner was a German chemist who was born on December 18, 1780 in Hof an Der Saale, Germany.  He was a remarkable man who will always be remembered for his fundamental contributions starting with being deemed 'founder of the study of catalysis'.  Dobereiner, the son of a coachman and servant, had little funds to assist in his educational journey.  This by no means stopped him from pursuing his dreams.  By the time he was 15 he successfully managed to get an apprenticeship at an apothecary named Lotz in Munchenberg.  Although still unable to fund a college education, when Dobereiner was 17 he charged ahead and devoted his full attention to participate in lectures on chemistry, botany, and mineralogy, which he studied on his own.

By 1802, Dobereiner managed to open an agricultural produce business along with a small chemical factory in the quaint town of Gefree near Bayreuth.  He quickly began to produce pharmaceutical-chemical preparations which swiftly lead to the publications of his experiments in the Neues allgemeines Journal der Chemie.  In 1810, Dobereiner became professor of chemistry at Jena and maintained that position for 39 years.  Some of his most popular publications include; Essays on Physical Chemistry and Principles of General Chemistry.  Then in 1817, perhaps a moment that will never be forgotten unveiled when Dobereiner concluded through his observation, that in certain groups of three elements the atomic weight of the middle element was approximately the mean of that of the first and third.  This new classification was called “Dobereiner’s triads”, a concept that was a prototype to the 1869 periodic table made by Dmitri Mendeleyev.

Dobereiner dedicated much of his life to his passion for work, however, felt compelled to marry a woman by the name of Clara Knab.  It was on a fateful day in 1810, that instant sparks flew when he meet Joann Goethe, a German Polymath and the founder of human chemistry.  Goethe had come to take Dobereiner’s weekly lectures about chemical analysis.  Seeing the sheer brilliance of Dobereiner, Goethe did everything in his power to obtain a full time professorship at Jena for Dobereiner where he remained from late 1810 until March 1849.  From that moment forward, the inseparable pair collaborated on all of their future work.  Their friendship was one built on kindness, support, and trust which left a legacy that one could only dream to find within a lifetime.  Dobereiner died on March 24, 1849 in Jena.  As a symbolism of the two men’s closeness, Dobereiner’s tombstone was inscribed “Goethe’s advisor, creator of the rule of triads, discovery of platinum catalysis.” 

William Blount was an American senator who was born on Easter Sunday March 26, 1747 near Windsor, North Carolina.  The Blount boys had very little formal education, which gave Jacob Blount’s father the idea to incorporate his boys into his business ventures of raising livestock, cotton, tobacco, producing turpentine, as well as the operation of the mill and horse racing track.  By 1771, both Blount and his father enlisted as soldiers and fought for the British under Gov. William Tyron.

With the Revolution underway, in 1776 Blount and his father were appointed to the paymaster positions for the Continental Army.  By 1779, Blount ran for New Bern State House Commons.  His opponent won by slight margin, however, Blount was able to convince election officials voter fraud had occurred.  In the weeks following, Blount ran for the seat again and he took his seat in the House of Commons in January 1781.  He was quick to climb the political ladder, in 1781 he was elected as one of North Carolina’s four delegates to the Continental Congress.  During 1783 &1784, he put into motion bills that would later be a vital part of Tennessee’s early history.   Then, in 1786 Blount hurried to New York to take his seat in the Continental Congress, hoping to prevent endorsement of the Hopewell Treaty.  That’s when in March 1787, Blount was chosen as one of five delegates to represent North Carolina at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. 

Throughout the 1780s & 1790s Blount and his brothers gradually bought up a huge amount of lands acquiring some 2.5 million acres throughout the western US.  In hope of preventing France from shutting off American access to the Mississippi River, Blount and his friend, an Indian agent, fashioned a plan to gain control of Florida and Louisiana and in return give free access to both New Orleans and the Mississippi River to American merchants.  In April 1797, a letter from Blount outlining the conspiracy was unexpectedly given to a War Department agent who in turn gave the letter to his superior.  In late January 1799, determining the actions of Blount to be a crime, the then Tennessee Senator he was disbarred and instead of awaiting a long trial posted bail and fled to Tennessee.

Although Blount’s national reputation was tattered, he remained popular in Tennessee once he returned to Knoxville in 1798.  In March of 1800, unfortunately a wide spread epidemic came barreling through Knoxville, and several of the Blount family members fell ill. It was while caring for his family that he was infected; on March 11th William started to experience the symptoms as well.  After 10 short days, Blount departed this Earth on March 21, 1800.  He was buried alongside his wife, Mary, at the First Presbyterian Church Cemetery a few blocks from his home in Knoxville.  Fun fact; Blount County, Tennessee, is named after Blount, as is the town of Blountville, Tennessee.

There was a slight oversight in Morbid Monday's choice for this week -- turns out Mr. Kant died on February 12, not March 12. However, we found him to be fascinating enough to run the article anyway....
---------
Immanuel Kant was born on April 22, 1724 in Konigsberg, Prussia.   He was born in an isolated providence and remained there throughout his entire life.  According to Kant, his father was a saddler and his mother was a German woman who, although uneducated, was remarkable for her character and natural intelligence.  Kant was the fourth of nine children, but the eldest surviving child to obtain an education.  

Kant’s education began at the age of eight when he entered a Latin based Pietist school that his Pastor directed.  Kant continued studying at this school for the next eight and a half years until 1740, at which point, he went on to continue at the University of Königsberg as a theological student.  Although he attended courses in theology and dabbled in preaching on a few occasions, his primary passion was in the mathematics and physics fields.  By 1744, he started writing his first book Gedanken von der wahren Schätzung der lebendigen Kräfte.  He then quickly released his second book in 1746 Thoughts on the True Estimation of Living Forces. Due to the unexpected death of his father for the next nine years he worked as a family tutor.  In 1755, Kant was able to complete his degree at University of Königsberg and was presented with a position as Privatdozdent, or lecturer.  He spent the subsequent 15 years in this position.  Soon he was lecturing on many subjects other than mathematics and physics, including logics, metaphysics, and moral philosophy.  He even was elected to teach a physical geography course, which he then continued to teach every summer for the next 30 years. 

Kant’s profound work in epistemology (the theory of knowledge), ethics, and aesthetic, deeply impacted all subsequent philosophy.  In fact, many have accredited his work as an important foundation for the basis of western philosophy. To put his thesis simply, Kant stated, “that the objects conform to the mind: in knowing, it is not the mind that conforms to things but instead things that conform to the mind”.

In 1790, Kant’s health began to deteriorate.  Although he had many projects, he found it tremendously difficult to write more than a few hours a day.  The work which he relentlessly labored over until his death was intended to be a key contribution to his philosophy.  Throughout his 47 years of composing Kant had over 35 published pieces of work including books, dissertations, and essays.  After a gradual and painful decline Kant passed away on February 12, 1804.  His last words were, “Es ist gut” (It Is Good). 

The daughter of a farming family, Mary Mason Lyon was born on February 28, 1797 in Buckland, Massachusetts.  She had a rather tumultuous childhood, starting with the loss of her father at the age of 5.  From that point forward, Mary and her 6 siblings pitched in to keep her family’s farm afloat.  By the time she was 13, Mary’s mother had remarried and relocated.  However, committed to her family’s empire, Mary decided to stay back and assist her brother, Aaron who took over the farm.  She devoted her free time to caring for the home aspect while she continued to work on her education.  In the process of going to school and helping her brother, she got her first job as a teacher while she was still in her early teens. 

Lyon went on to attend two secondary schools, Sanderson Academy in Ashfield and Byfield Seminary in eastern Massachusetts.  After her graduation she taught at several academies, including Sanderson, a small school of her own in Buckland, Adams Female Academy and the Ipswich Female Seminary.  She worked hard to create a vision and later a place that would provide women the opportunity to obtain a higher education.  Despite the many obstacles that were placed in her path, including a country that was in financial devastation, Lyon was able to push ahead and raise enough capital on her own to open her new school.  In 1837, the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary opened in South Hadley, Massachusetts, with 80 students.  In keeping true to her social vision she set tuition costs to an unheard of $60/yr and didn’t allow anyone under the age of 16 years old to be admitted.  Although some of her policies were controversial, that didn’t seem to matter much as the seminary quickly gained its target student body of 200.  Lyon introduced her students to a “new and unusual” way of learning.  This included incorporating a mandatory daily exercise routine and required all students to perform domestic tasks.  

Mary Lyon passed away on March 05, 1849 of Erysipelas possibly contracted from an ill student in her care.  Her presence will forever bless the Mount Holyoke College and all who enter the grounds as she was buried on the campus.   Lyon’s work is still being carried on by the students and faculty of her school, which now has more than 2,000 students enrolled.  The Mary Lyon dormitories at Miami University, Swarthmore College, University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Plymouth State University are named in her memory.  In 1905, Lyon was inducted into the Hall of Fame for Great Americans in Bronx, New York.  Furthermore, she has been honored by the United States Postal Service with a 2¢ Great American Series postage stamp.  She was an educational pioneer, a woman who followed her bliss and created a legacy and example for women all over the world to follow.  One of her most profound quotes was, “When you choose your fields of labor go where nobody else is willing to go”.

Anna Symmes Harrison was born in Morristown, New Jersey on July 25, 1775.  Her life was almost immediately and profoundly impacted by the death of her mother on July 25, 1776.   For the first three years following her mother’s passing, Anna was raised by her father.  However, there came a point where he began to be unable to fully care for her and her sister.  Being a Continental Officer in the Army, duty called and required her father to take the then four year old to her maternal grandparents, Henry and Phoebe Tuthill on Long Island.

 Without batting an eye, Anna’s grandparents raised her and ensured her excellent education.  During this time she attended the Clinton Academy at East Hampton in Long Island and then went to private school of Isabella Graham in New York City.  Did you know Anna Harrison was the first First Lady to receive a formal education?  In 1794, Anna rejoined her father and her second step mother, Susan Livingston Symmes at a temporary home on his extensive land along the Ohio River.  

Anna’s life would never be the same from that moment forward.  Soon after arriving in Lexington, Kentucky with her step mother, all of Anna’s dreams came true.  She met and fell in love with Army Officer, Acting Captain William Henry Harrison, who would go on to be the 9th President of the United States.  By November 22, 1795 they were married and she had ten children throughout their relationship.  Anna preferred a traditional role and enjoyed being a devoted wife and mother most of all.  She was an active and vibrant member within the church community.  The couple had a happy marriage despite the inconceivable challenges the untimely death of their 5 grown children presented.  When William was inaugurated in 1841, Anna was detained due to health issues and stayed behind at their home in North Bend.  On April 4th, exactly one month after his inauguration, Anna’s husband, President Harrison died, which led Anna to flee to her son, John Scott.  Anna spent the remainder of her life surrounded by her only surviving child, John and grandchild, Benjamin Harrison, who later went on to become the 23rd president of the United States.  Anna Harrison passed away on February 25, 1864 and was laid to rest next to her husband at the William Henry Harrison Tomb State Memorial in North Bend.

Born in London, England, on October 31, 1795 John Keats committed his life to the perfection of poetry.   His life profoundly and instantly changed in the blink of an eye at the tender age of 8.  His father, a livery stable-keeper, was killed after being trampled by a horse.  This molded Keats' understanding for the human condition, both its suffering and its loss.  During this time, Keats’ continued to study and take comfort in arts and literature at Enfield Academy where he had enrolled shortly before his father’s passing.  Deeply distraught, his mother launched a series of unfortunate mistakes leading her to flee her life and children.  Shortly after her return she contracted Tuberculosis and died in 1810.  This is when Keats discovered his insatiable desire and skill for reading.  In the fall of 1810, Keats transferred out of Enfield to study medicine at a London hospital and became a licensed apothecary in 1816.

Even as Keats’ studied medicine, his love and passion for literature never ceased.  His first leap into the world of poetry happened when he was introduced to Leigh Hunt.  By 1817 Keats’ blossoming new friendship had guided him to publishing his first book, “Poems” by John Keats. The following year, Keats' published "Endymion,” a mammoth four-thousand line poem based on the Greek myth of the same name. Keats' audacious yet spirited style earned him nothing but criticism from two of England's more beloved publications, Blackwood's Magazine and the Quarterly Review. 

Unfortunately, in 1819 Keats’ contracted Tuberculosis which caused a quick deterioration in his health.   Under doctor counsel to be in a warmer climate, Keats’ decided after his last volume of poetry was published he would venture off to Rome to visit his long time friend and confidant, Joseph Severn.  Keats’ arrived in Rome in November of that year and briefly started to feel better.  However, within a month he was back in bed and it marked the start of a painful decline for this historic poet.  At the young age of 26, John Keats passed away on February 23, 1821.  It has been said the last moments of Keats’ life were spent hand in hand with Severn. 

The love of Keats’ short life was a woman by the name of Fanny Brawne. She was his muse for several years before his death, inspiring the following poem, and a feature film of the same name…