“ He accumulated, in the university library, one of the largest folklore collections in existence, studied manuscript rather than printed sources, and carried his investigations into the ballads of all other tongues, meanwhile giving a sedulous but conservative hearing to popular versions still surviving. ”

“ CHILD, FRANCIS JAMES (1825–1896) , American scholar and educationist, was born in Boston on the 1st of February 1825. He graduated at Harvard in 1846, taking the highest rank in his class in all subjects; was tutor in mathematics in 1846–1848; and in 1848 was transferred to a tutorship in history, political economy and English. ”