Nineteenth Century

1870

J. Lewis Diman Speaks at Commencement

J. Lewis Diman, professor of history and political economy at Brown University, speaks at commencement.

Son of Rhode Island governor, Byron Diman, J. Lewis was born in Bristol, RI in 1831. After graduating from Brown University in 1851, he spent two years in Europe, studying at the Universities of Halle, Heidelberg and Berlin. Following his graduation from Andover Theological Seminary in 1856, Diman spent four years as pastor of the First Congregational Church in Fall River, MA, then four years at the Harvard Church in Brookline, MA. He became a professor at Brown University in 1864 and taught there for seventeen years. He died in Providence in 1881.

As well as sermons and religious tracts, Diman published a number of lectures, including “The Nation and the Constitution” (1866), “The Method of Academic Culture” (1869) and “The Alienation of the Educated Class from Politics” (1876), as well as articles for the Providence Journal and The Nation.