Atherton Blight

Atherton Blight (November 10, 1834 – November 4, 1909) was a Philadelphia lawyer, businessperson, author, diarist, and philanthropist who traveled extensively in the middle of the 19th century to Europe and the Middle East. Blight was also a founding member of the Art Club of Philadelphia, a major stockholder in the Newport Casino, and a member of the millionaires club of the gilded age. Early life and career Blight was born in Philadelphia, the son of George James Blight (1772–1836) and Maria Gillingham (1798–1865). He descended from a long line of Philadelphia merchants and lawyers. It is known that he was named in honor of a Philadelphia lawyer, and relative, Humphrey Atherton (1788–1845). Blight was born into immense wealth and privilege. His father died shortly before his birth, and as one of the 5 surviving children he received a fair share of the paternal estate, totaling almost US$123,000. This was equivalent to US$4,000,000 as of 2021. Blight attended school in Philadelphia, and was interested in the arts and music. He was a regular Shakespearean enthusiast at the home of William Henry Furness, whose son Horace Howard Furness was a close friend and a fellow Harvard scholar. They were roommates at Harvard. He had a series of musical essays published during this period in New York City. He graduated from Harvard University in 1854. As a young man in his twenties, Blight traveled extensively overseas. At the age of 20, he embarked on a two-year cultural tour of Europe accompanied by Horace, initially to London in October 1854, and then onto Paris. He subsequently met up with a fellow Harvard alumni James Savage Jnr. He immersed himself into the German and Austrian culture. Inspired by this time in Aigen, Salzburg, he purchased Erdenheim Farm in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania in 1855, however he did not return to sign the deed, and nominated a third party. His sister died shortly afterwards. Again he chose not to return home to Philadelphia, choosing to continue his journey into Spain, and onto the Levantine region and Egypt. After Turkey and Crimea, he traveled to Greece and Corfu, then a British protectorate. He kept a travel diary of his extensive tour of Europe, the Middle East and Crimea, which took place between 1855 and 1856. Whilst in Jerusalem, he visited Warder Cresson, a former Quaker, also from Philadelphia, who converted to Judaism and became an early Zionist after having been appointed as the first U.S. Consul to Jerusalem in 1844.