Newbold, William Romaine (1865-1926)
Newbold, William Romaine (1865-1926)
Philosopher with a special interest in psychical research. He was born November 20, 1865, at Wilmington, Delaware. He studied at the University of Pennsylvania (B.A., 1887; Ph.D., 1891) and did post-graduate study at the University of Berlin (1891-92). He was a member of the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania for 37 years, of which the last two decades were spent as the Adam Seybert Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy (1907-26). He was an authority on Oriental languages and Greek philosophy. He became famous for his achievement in deciphering a medieval manuscript, which he showed to be the work of Roger Bacon, and for his translation of Semitic scrawls on the walls of the Roman catacombs.
He was a member of both the Society for Psychical Research (SPR), London, and the American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR). He was deeply interested in psychical research and contributed a number of important articles on the subject to the Journal and Proceedings of the ASPR and the SPR. He died September 26, 1926, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Sources:
Berger, Arthur S., and Joyce Berger. The Encyclopedia of Parapsychology and Psychical Research. New York: Paragon House, 1991.
Newbold, William R. The Cipher of Roger Bacon. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1928.
——. "Subconscious Reasoning." Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 12 (1896).
Pleasants, Helene, ed. Biographical Dictionary of Parapsychology. New York: Helix Press, 1964.