Lewis Nicola (159)

Lewis Nicola (1717–9 August 1807) was a military officer, public officeholder, shopkeeper, librarian, and curator, and a member of the American Philosophical Society via his 1768 election to the American Society. Born in Dublin, Nicola spent the first half of his life working his way up through the British army ranks as did his father and grandfather before him. At the age of fifty, Nicola hoped the North American British colonies would provide more opportunities for him and his family. Soon after arriving in 1766 he opened a dry goods store, but his addition of a circulating library in 1767 generated real interest. This venture, stemming from Nicola’s own intellectual interests, introduced him to a number of Philadelphia’s natural philosophers, first at the American Society and then at the newly united American Philosophical Society. Drawing on his curiosity and with encouragement from fellow members, Nicola began publishing scientifically and civically inclined articles in his The American Magazine and General Repository in January of 1769. While the magazine quietly folded within the year, of more lasting influence were the appendices he published at the end of each volume that detailed the papers read to the American Society: the “Transactions of the American Philosophical Society” (the progenitor of APS’s Transactions). Financial stresses, never far from Nicola’s accounting, continued to dog him. He pursued a series of short-lived ventures to bring in an income but monetary stability eluded him. He opened an “American Porter House,” became a schoolmaster, and entered advertising, each with nominal success. Finally, with the coming of the American Revolution, his past military experience proved a path to the stability he longed for. He enlisted in the army and drew from his experience to write and translate military manuals. Once appointed as Philadelphia’s barrack-master, he quickly turned the old city jail into proper army barracks. As the British army advanced into New Jersey, Nicola was appointed a major and Philadelphia’s town mayor. Of all his contributions during the war effort, maybe most notable was his decision to station troops unfit for active duty as guards thereby freeing fit soldiers for combat. Throughout the remainder of the war and in the years that followed, Nicola pursued ways that his Invalid Corps might benefit national defense while the new nation provided employment to physically disabled army veterans. As the nation transitioned out of wartime, so too did Nicola. He finally was able to pursue his interests in natural science through his renewed and increased activity at the APS, including serving as a curator from 1779 through 1785. Upon his death, a Philadelphia paper remembered him as he probably would have wanted, “by profession a patriot soldier, and by taste a man of literature and science.” (PI)