Boris Johnson in AD White reading room with Corey Earle, as University Librarian Elaine Westbrooks looks on

Top: Johnson chats with Earle in the A.D. White Reading Room, as University Librarian Elaine Westbrooks looks on.

Former UK Prime Minister Delves into an Ancestor’s Big Red History

Our columnist took Boris Johnson on a tour of two East Hill libraries with info about his Cornellian great-grandfather

By Corey Ryan Earle ’07

In late April 2026, former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson gave a lecture on the Hill. But before delivering his remarks, he visited Uris and Kroch libraries to view materials about Elias Avery Lowe 1902—his great-grandfather.

While Johnson remembered meeting Lowe as a child, he didn’t know his ancestor’s Big Red pedigree. (Fortunately, his tour guide—yours truly—did.)

A look into Lowe’s file in the University Archives provides a glimpse into the life of one of Cornell’s most notable classical scholars.

An illustration of Corey Earle with the title Storytime with Corey

In fact, a 1960 letter from the curator of rare books, George Healey, PhD ’47, to the University Librarian calls Lowe “the most overlooked of all our graduates who have reached genuine world-wide distinction,” adding: “I believe no graduate of the University has achieved a higher position in his chosen field of scholarship.”

A 1960 letter from the curator of rare books, George Healey, PhD ’47, to the University Librarian calls Lowe “the most overlooked of all our graduates who have reached genuine world-wide distinction.” 

Born to a Jewish family in Moscow, Lowe emigrated to the U.S. in 1892 and arrived on the Hill in 1899 after three years at the College of the City of New York.

He became an American citizen during his undergraduate studies. (His name at the time was spelled “Loew,” though he later changed it.)

If there’s one theme to Lowe’s undergrad years, it’s his brilliance.

His academic transcript, filled with Latin and Greek courses, boasts nearly all straight As—in an era long before grade inflation. His bio from the student-run Class Book notes that “he feels unhappy when he gets anything lower than 95, and his course cards look like the temperature report of midsummer.”

His junior year, Lowe was one of only five members of his graduating class (and the only male) inducted into Phi Beta Kappa.

A young Elias Avery Lowe 1902
Lowe in the Class Book.

But it was his post-Cornell scholarship that earned him fame.

On the University of Oxford faculty for 38 years, Lowe established himself as an international authority on paleography (ancient writing).

His academic transcript, filled with Latin and Greek courses, boasts nearly all straight As—in an era long before grade inflation. 

For four decades, he compiled his magnum opus, Codices Latini Antiquiores, a catalogue of all surviving Latin manuscripts written before the ninth century. It includes details and photographs of over 2,000 works—across repositories in 21 countries—filling 11 volumes.

Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson speaks at Call Auditorium in Kennedy Hall on Monday, April 27, 2026. (Ryan Young / Cornell University)
Ryan Young / Cornell University
Johnson in Call Auditorium with moderator Max Whalen ’26, president of Cornell Republicans ….
Boris jJohnson looks through a book in the Kroch Library reading room with curator Laurent Ferri
… and in Kroch Library with curator Laurent Ferri.

Concurrent with his Oxford appointment, Lowe served as a research associate at the Carnegie Institution of Washington and was only the 14th person to join the faculty at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ.

(On an alumni info form from 1952, Lowe listed among his primary contacts the institute’s director: J. Robert Oppenheimer, of Manhattan Project fame.)

On an alumni info form from 1952, Lowe listed among his primary contacts the director of the Institute for Advanced Study: J. Robert Oppenheimer, of Manhattan Project fame.

Lowe received numerous honorary degrees and professional awards, and was only the third U.S. citizen to receive the Gold Medal from London’s Bibliographical Society. His Times of London obituary called him “among the greatest American scholars of his generation.”

Elias Avery Lowe writing as an elderly man
Lowe in his later years.

Lowe’s wife, Helen Tracy Lowe-Porter, also spent time on the shores of Cayuga Lake, having graduated from Wells College a year before Elias arrived in Ithaca. An accomplished scholar, she’s best known for translating the works of German writer Thomas Mann.

Helen and Elias’s daughter, Frances, married British barrister James Fawcett, who later served as president of the European Commission for Human Rights. Their daughter, British artist Charlotte Johnson Wahl, was Boris Johnson’s mother.

And although Lowe spent much of his career overseas, his alma mater remained close to his heart; he returned to give lectures on topics like “Modern Forgeries of Ancient Texts” and “Manuscripts That Made History.”

He died in 1969 while conducting research in Germany, just weeks short of his 90th birthday.

“Last time I ran into the old man it was quite by accident on a London street,” Healey reported to the Alumni News after Lowe’s passing. “I wanted to talk about paleography. All he wanted to talk about was Cornell.”

An expert on Big Red lore, Corey Ryan Earle ’07 teaches “The First American University,” a wildly popular spring semester course on Cornell history.

Top: Johnson chats with Earle in the A.D. White Reading Room, as University Librarian Elaine Westbrooks looks on. (All images courtesy of Rare and Manuscript Collections, unless otherwise indicated.)

Published May 12, 2026

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