Henry Pratt Fairchild

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Henry Pratt Fairchild (1880-1956) was a distinguished American sociologist.

Fairchild was born in Dundee, Illinois. His father was Arthur Babbitt Fairchild, a descendant of Thomas Fairchild who settled in New England in 1639 and his mother a member of the Pratt industrialist family.

Fairchild grew up in Crete, Nebraska, where his father was professor at Doane College. Fairchild attended Doane (AB, 1900) and Yale University (PhD, 1909). He also received an honorary LL.D. from Doane in 1930.

Fairchild’s major teaching appointment was at New York University. He served for 26 yeas, from 1919 until his retirement in 1945, and became chairman of the Department of Sociology in the Graduate School. Much of his work focused on race, nationalism, immigration and ethnic conflict.

Fairchild was president of the Population Association of America from 1921-1925. He was president of the American Sociological Society in 1936.

Fairchild was a brother of Fred Rogers Fairchild, an economist and educator.