Ellwood Patterson Cubberley (1868-1941), an early 20th-century educator and university dean, wrote influential textbooks in the history of education and public school administration. He played a major role in the professionalization of teaching and administration and in elevating education to a university study.

Ellwood Patterson Cubberley, the only child of Edwin Blanchard and Catherine Coryell Cubberley, was born in Antiock (later Andrews), Indiana, on June 6, 1868. His mother was of Delaware Quaker ancestry and his father, a druggist, was English. Ellwood attended the local schools of Antiock and the college preparatory school at Purdue University. In 1886, impressed by David Starr Jordan's lecture "The Value of a College Education," Cubberley persuaded his father to let him enter Indiana University where Jordan was then president. There he studied physical science and in his senior year became so skilled in managing the stereopticon lanterns that Jordan chose him as lantern assistant for...