1834-1926
Educator, College President

Educational Leader.

Charles W. Eliot was born into an established Boston family on 20 March 1834 and taught chemistry both at Harvard and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before being appointed president of Harvard in 1869. When his forty-year tenure as president of Harvard University ended in 1909, he left behind a strong educational legacy that had an enduring impact in the United States. In higher education the innovations he introduced at Harvard influenced institutions of higher education around the country and led to the emergence of the distinctly American university. He also shaped the development of the nation's secondary and elementary schools through his frequent writings and speeches on the subject, his involvement in educational associations, and his membership on various educational reform panels. In 1903, when Eliot was at the height of his influence, the National Education Association (NEA) selected him to be...