William Henry Goodyear

Who was William Henry Goodyear?

William Henry Goodyear was a noted American archaeologist, art historian, and museum curator. He was the son of Charles Goodyear, inventor of rubber vulcanization, and Clarissa Beecher Goodyear.

Goodyear was born in New Haven, Connecticut, spent much of his childhood in England and France, and graduated from Yale University in 1867 with a degree in history. He then relocated to Italy, then Berlin, and subsequently Heidelberg where he studied art history under archaeologist Karl Friedrichs. In 1869 Goodyear traveled with Friedrichs to Syria and Cyprus, then spent 1870 in Venice and Pisa where he studied the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

In 1871 he married Sarah Sanford, his first of three wives, and taught at Cooper Union until 1882, when he was hired as first curator of the new Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 1888 Goodyear published a popular survey of art history, and in 1890 was appointed curator of art at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. From 1895-1914 he conducted a series of studies in which he photographed and measured European buildings. He died of pneumonia in 1923 and is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn.