Andrew Dickson White

Notable work and positions

Cornell University - Co-founder and first President (1866/1868-1885)
American Historical Association - First President (1884-1886)
University of Michigan - Professor of History (1857-1863)
U.S. Ambassador to Germany (1879-1881; 1897-1902) and Minister to Russia (1892-1894)

Biography

Andrew Dickson White was an American historian, educator and diplomat who co-founded Cornell University and served as its first president for nearly two decades. Born November 7, 1832, in Homer, New York, he attended Geneva College (now Hobart and William Smith Colleges) before transferring to Yale University, graduating in 1853. After three years of study in Europe, including as an attaché at the U.S. legation in St. Petersburg, Russia, he became a professor of history and English literature at the University of Michigan in 1857. As a New York state senator, White worked with Ezra Cornell, a farmer and telegraph entrepreneur, to use the federal Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862 to establish a new university; the New York legislature chartered Cornell University in 1865, and White became its first president when it opened in 1868, serving until 1885. As president, he recruited faculty, built the university's library and collections through purchases in Europe, promoted the first electrical engineering department in the United States, and founded its Department of Political Science. He later served as U.S. minister to Germany (1879-1881) and Russia (1892-1894) and as ambassador to Germany (1897-1902), and led the American delegation to the 1899 Hague Peace Conference. He was the first president of the American Historical Association (1884-1886) and wrote several books, most notably A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom (1896). He died in Ithaca, New York, on November 4, 1918, and left $500,000 to Cornell in his will, in addition to earlier gifts. His personal library collection is housed in the Andrew Dickson White Reading Room at Cornell's Uris Library.

Career highlights

• Founding of Cornell University 1865-1868 · Co-founded the university with Ezra Cornell as a nonsectarian, coeducational institution and served as its first president.
• A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom 1896 · His best-known historical work, published in multiple languages.
• First President, American Historical Association 1884-1886.