22 Facts About Francis Parkman

The senior Francis Parkman was minister of the Unitarian New North Church in Boston from 1813 to 1849.

Francis Parkman made expeditions through the Alps and the Apennine Mountains, climbed Vesuvius, and lived for a time in Rome, where he befriended Passionist monks who tried, unsuccessfully, to convert him to Catholicism.

Francis Parkman's family was somewhat appalled at Parkman's choice of life work, since at the time writing histories of the American wilderness was considered ungentlemanly.

Francis Parkman's works became so well-received that by the end of his lifetime histories of early America had become the fashion.

In 1846, Francis Parkman travelled west on a hunting expedition, where he spent a number of weeks living with the Sioux tribe, at a time when they were struggling with some of the effects of contact with Europeans, such as epidemic disease and alcoholism.

Francis Parkman was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1855, and in 1865 was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society.

Francis Parkman wrote a widely circulated 1879 propaganda essay against women's suffrage in which he expressed the view that women are "the impulsive and excitable half of humanity" who could not be trusted in government.

Francis Parkman was thus able to commit much of his time to research, as well as to travel.

Francis Parkman traveled across North America, visiting most of the historical locations he wrote about, and made frequent trips to Europe seeking original documents with which to further his research.

Francis Parkman's accomplishments are all the more impressive in light of the fact that he suffered from a debilitating neurological illness, which plagued him his entire life, and which was never properly diagnosed.

Francis Parkman was often unable to walk, and for long periods he was effectively blind, being unable to see but the slightest amount of light.

Francis Parkman married Catherine Scollay Bigelow on May 13,1850; they had three children.

Francis Parkman successfully raised two daughters, introducing them into Boston society and seeing them both wed, with families of their own.

Francis Parkman is buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Francis Parkman is known for being one of the founders, in 1879, and first president of Boston's St Botolph Club, a social club which focuses on arts and literature.

Francis Parkman's work has been praised by historians who have published essays in new editions of his work, such as Pulitzer Prize winners C Vann Woodward, Allan Nevins, and Samuel Eliot Morison, as well as by other notable historians including Wilbur R Jacobs, John Keegan, William Taylor, Mark Van Doren, and David Levin.

In 1865 Francis Parkman built a house at 50 Chestnut Street on Beacon Hill in Boston, which has since become a National Historic Landmark.

Francis Parkman's essay Some of the Reasons Against Woman Suffrage was a best-seller for decades.

The Massachusetts Association Opposed to the Further Extension of Suffrage to Women continued to use Francis Parkman's writing and prestigious name long after his death.

Francis Parkman's work regarding nationality, race, and especially Native Americans has generated criticism.

Francis Parkman called the women of the more aggressive west to be "scraggy necked" claiming that he disliked the company of the westerners.

Yet Francis Parkman's work represents a pioneering effort; in several ways he anticipated the kind of frontier history now taken for granted.