Frederick Augustus Porter Barnard, LL. D., an American scholar and educator, born at Sheffield, Mass., in 1809. He graduated at Yale college in 1828, became tutor there in 1829, in 1831 teacher in the asylum for the deaf and dumb at Hartford, and in 1832 in that of New York. From 1837 to 1848 he was professor of mathematics and natural philosophy in the university of Alabama, and afterward of chemistry till 1854. The same year he took orders in the Episcopal church. He then became professor of mathematics and astronomy in the university of Mississippi, of which institution he was elected president in 1856. In 1861 Dr. Barnard left Mississippi, and in 1864 he became president of Columbia college, New York, which office he still holds (1873). He was United States commissioner to the universal exposition at Paris in 1867, and published an elaborate "Report on Machinery and Industrial Arts" (New York, 1869). His other principal works are: "Treatise on Arithmetic" (1830); "Analytic Grammar with Symbolic Illustration" (1836), originating a system still used in the principal institutions for the deaf and dumb; various reports, essays, etc, on collegiate and university education, including a volume of "Letters on Collegiate Government" (1855); "History of the United States Coast Survey" (1857); "Recent Progress of Science" (1869); and "The Metric System" (1871). In 1860 he was a member of the astronomical expedition to observe the total eclipse of the sun in Labrador; in 1862 was engaged in continuing the reduction of Gilliss's observations of the stars in the southern hemisphere; and in 1863 had charge of the publication of charts and maps of the United States coast survey.

In 1860 he was elected president of the American association for the advancement of science; in 1865 of the board of experts of the American bureau of mines; and in 1872 of the American institute. In 1855 he received the degree of LL. D. from Jefferson college, Miss., and in 1859 from Yale college; in 1861 that of D. D. from the university of Mississippi; and in 1872 that of doctor of literature from the regents of the university of the state of New York. He is a member of various learned societies in America and Europe, and has been a contributor to the "American Journal of Education" from its commencement, and to Silliman's "American Journal of Science and Arts" since 1837.