Gibbs came from an academic family in New Haven, Connecticut. His father was a noted philologist, a graduate of Yale and professor of sacred literature there from 1826 until his death in 1861. The younger Gibbs grew up in New Haven and graduated from Yale College, having won a number of prizes in both Latin and mathematics. He continued at Yale as a student of engineering in the new graduate school and, in 1863, received one of the first Ph.D. degrees granted in the United States. After serving as a tutor in Yale College for three years, giving elementary instruction in Latin and physics, Gibbs left New Haven for further study in Europe. He spent a year each at the universities of Paris, Berlin, and Heidelberg, attending lectures in mathematics and physics and reading widely in both fields. He was never a student of...