Portuguese at Yale an Historical Sketch

The presence of Portuguese at Yale can be traced to the hiring of Henry Roseman Lang, an Austrian with a doctorate in romance philology from Strasbourg (1890), in the Department of Romance Languages. There is no evidence that Professor Lang ever taught Portuguese, although he worked with Portuguese medieval poetry and corresponded with Carolina Michaela de Vasconcellos, Adolfo Coelho, and other famous Portuguese linguists and philologists of the time. In 1908, he received Joaquim Nabuco, then the first Brazilian ambassador to the United States, for two lectures at Yale on “The Place of Camões in Literature” and “The Spirit of Nationality in Brazil.” Professor Lang had a long and distinguished career at Yale, from Instructor, 1892-93, Assistant Professor, 1893-96, Professor of Romance Philology, 1896-1906, to Benjamin F. Barge Professor of Romance Languages & Linguistics, 1906-1922. He was emeritus professor from his retirement in 1922 until his death in 1934.