William Cowper Prime

William Cowper Prime (1825-1905) was an American journalist, brother of S. I. Prime and of E. D. G. Prime, born at Cambridge, N. Y. He graduated at Princeton in 1843, was admitted to the bar and practiced law at New York City until 1861, when he became part owner and editor in chief of the New York "Journal of Commerce". In 1869 he gave up his editorial work and revisited Egypt and Palestine, where he had spent some time in 1855-56. It was at his instance that Princeton in 1884 established a chair of the history of art. Of this he became the first incumbent. His interest in art matters brought him into close connection with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, of which he was first vice-president after 1874. He wrote:
* "The Owl-Creek Letters" (1848)
* "The Old House by the River" (1853)
* "Boat Life in Egypt and Nubia" (1857)
* "Tent Life in the Holy Land" (1857)
* "Coins, Medals, and Seals, Ancient and Modern" (1861)
* "Pottery and Porcelain of all Times and Nations" (1878)

He wrote the hymn "O Mother dear, Jerusalem" and also edited "McClellan's Own Story" (1886).

External links

*worldcat id|lccn-n83-169153

* [http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=moa;cc=moa;q1=palestine;rgn=subject;view=toc;idno=AFG7238.0001.001 Tent life in the Holy Land.] By William C. Prime, New York: Harper & brothers, 1857. The full text online, University of Michigan Library.

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