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Joseph Earl Sheffield (June 19 1793 – February 16 1882) was an American railroad magnate and philanthropist.

Born in Southport, Connecticut, the son of Paul King Sheffield, a shipowner, and his wife Mabel (née Thorpe). He attended the public schools, became a clerk in a drygoods store in Newberne, North Carolina from 1807 to 1812, and removed to Mobile, Alabama in 1813, where he became a shipper of cotton. He married Maria St. John of Walton, New York in 1822, and relocated to New Haven, Connecticut in 1835, becoming owner of the New Haven and Northampton Canal, a charter member of the New York and New Haven Railroad company, the constructor of the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad, and president of the Northampton Railroad.

He gave Yale University a building for its scientific department, and a US$130,000 endowment for the school, which was renamed the Sheffield Scientific School in his honor. Other donations to Yale followed, which were used to build North Sheffield Hall, to enlarge the library, and for other purposes. Trinity College and Northwestern Theological Seminary also benefited from his donations.

Sheffield died in New Haven, Connecticut and is buried in Grove Street Cemetery.

• 1793 births
• 1882 deaths
• American railroad executives of the 19th century