Henry Steel Olcott

Henry Steel Olcott
Colonel Henry Steel Olcott
Born	2 August 1832 Orange, New Jersey
Died	17 February 1907 (aged 74) Adyar, Chennai
Nationality	American
Education	City College of New York Columbia University
Occupation	Military officer Journalist Lawyer
Known for	Revival of Buddhism Theosophical Society American Civil War
Spouse(s)	Mary Epplee Morgan

External images

The unveiling a statue to Olcott in Colombo.

Olcott statue in New Jersey.

Olcott statue situated near the auditorium of Dharmaraja College, Kandy

Colonel Henry Steel Olcott (Sinhalese: කර්නල් ශ්රිමත් හෙන්රි ස්ටීල් ඔල්කට්) (2 August 1832 – 17 February 1907) was an American military officer, journalist, lawyer and the co-founder and first President of the Theosophical Society.

Olcott was the first well-known American of European ancestry to make a formal conversion to Buddhism. His subsequent actions as president of the Theosophical Society helped create a renaissance in the study of Buddhism. Olcott is considered a Buddhist modernist for his efforts in interpreting Buddhism through a Westernized lens.

Olcott was a major revivalist of Buddhism in Sri Lanka and he is still honored in Sri Lanka for these efforts. Olcott has been called by Sri Lankans "one of the heroes in the struggle of our independence and a pioneer of the present religious, national and cultural revival".

Olcott was born on 2 August 1832 in Orange, New Jersey, the oldest of six children, to Presbyterian businessman Henry Wyckoff Olcott and Emily Steele Olcott. As a child, Olcott lived on his father's New Jersey farm.

During his teens he attended first the College of the City of New York and later Columbia University, where he joined the St. Anthony Hall fraternity, a milieu of well-known people. In 1851 his father's business failed and he had to leave the university.

From 1858 to 1860 Olcott was the agricultural correspondent for the New York Tribune and the Mark Lane Express, but occasionally submitted articles on other subjects. He also published a genealogy of his family extending back to Thomas Olcott, one of the founders of Hartford, Connecticut, in 1636.