Child, Francis James, 1825-96, American scholar, b. Boston, grad. Harvard, 1846. At Harvard he was professor of rhetoric (1851-76) and English literature (1876-96). He greatly influenced modern methods of Chaucer study. He is best known, however, for his English and Scottish Popular Ballads (5 vol., 1883-98). This is a major source on folklore in which Child defined, with examples, some 305 types of ballads, including complete textual variations.