Birthdays

Profiles of LGBT people, from the past and today – and celebrating their birthdays! All Birthdays →

Arthur Kingsley Porter

Arthur Kingsley Porter was born in Darien, Connecticut, on Feburary 16, 1883, and he graduated from Yale University in 1904. Porter was an early American archealogist and art historian, often described as an “Indiana Jones-eque” figure. He chaired the Art History Department at Harvard University in the 1920s and early 1930s  He married in 1912, but after his death, his psychiatrist described him as a “homosexual, in the closet.” He disappeared in 1933, most likely because he committed suicide. His Cambridge estate, Elmwood, has served as the official residence of Harvard’s president since 1970. You can read more about Porter here: Arthur Kingsley Porter, 1883-1933.