Andrew Dickson White
Andrew Dickson White | |
---|---|
New York Senate from the 22nd district | |
In office 1864–1867 | |
Preceded by | Allen Munroe |
Succeeded by | George N. Kennedy |
Personal details | |
Born | Homer, New York, U.S. | November 7, 1832
Died | November 4, 1918 Andrew Dickson White House, Ithaca, New York, U.S. | (aged 85)
Resting place | Sage Chapel, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, U.S. 42°26′50″N 76°29′05″W / 42.447307°N 76.484592°W |
Political party | Republican |
Height | 5 ft 5 in (165 cm)[1] |
Spouses | |
Residence | Andrew Dickson White House |
Alma mater | Yale College (BA, AM) |
Signature | |
Andrew Dickson White (November 7, 1832 – November 4, 1918) was an American historian and educator who co-founded Cornell University, one of eight Ivy League universities in the United States, and served as its first president for nearly two decades. He was known for expanding the scope of college curricula.[2] A politician, he had served as New York state senator and was later appointed as U.S. ambassador to Germany and Russia.
He was one of the founders of the conflict thesis, which states that science and religion have historically been in conflict, and tried to prove it over the course of approximately 800 pages in his History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom.
Early life and education
White was born on November 7, 1832, in Homer, New York, to Clara (née Dickson) and Horace White.[3] Clara was the daughter of Andrew Dickson, a New York State Representative in 1832 and his wife. Horace was the son of Asa White, a farmer from Massachusetts, and his wife. Their once-successful farm was ruined by a fire when Horace was 13.[3]
Despite little formal education and struggles with poverty after his family lost their farm, Horace White became a businessman and wealthy merchant. In 1839, he opened what became
One of Andrew's cousins, Edwin White, became an artist of the Luminism style and Hudson River School.[6] His nephew was Horace White, governor of New York.
Beginning in the fall of 1849, White enrolled as an undergraduate at Geneva College, known today as Hobart and William Smith Colleges, at the insistence of his father.[7] He was inducted as a member of Sigma Phi. In his autobiography, he recalled that he had felt that his time at Geneva was "wasted" by being at the small Episcopalian school instead of at "one of the larger New England universities".[7] White dropped out in 1850. After a period of estrangement, White persuaded his father to let him transfer to Yale College.
At Yale, White was a classmate of
Alpha Sigma Phi inducted White as a member in 1850 and he served as editor of the fraternity's publication, The Tomahawk. White remained active in the fraternity for the rest of his life, founding the Cornell chapter and serving as the national president from 1913 to 1915.[11] He also served as an editor of The Lit., known today as the Yale Literary Magazine. He belonged to Linonia, a literary and debating society.[4] As a junior, White won the Yale literary prize for the best essay, writing on the topic "The Greater Distinctions in Statesmanship;" this was a surprise as traditionally a senior was chosen for the winning essay.[4][12] Also as a junior, White joined the junior society Psi Upsilon. In his senior year, White won the Clark Prize for English disputation and the De Forest prize for public oratory, speaking on the topic "The Diplomatic History of Modern Times". Valued at $100, the De Forest prize was then the largest prize of its kind at any educational institution, American or otherwise.[13] In addition to academic pursuits, White was on the Yale crew team, and competed in the first Harvard–Yale Regatta in 1852.[14]
After graduation, White traveled and studied in Europe with his classmate Daniel Coit Gilman. Between 1853 and 1854, he studied at the
Career
Academia
In October 1858, White accepted a position as a professor of History and English literature at the University of Michigan, where he remained on faculty until 1863.[16] White made his lasting mark on the grounds of the university by enrolling students to plant elms along the walkways on The Diag.[17] Between 1862 and 1863, he traveled to Europe to lobby France and Britain to assist the United States in the American Civil War or at least not to aid the Confederate States.[16]
Founding of Cornell University
In 1863, White returned to reside in
White pressed for the university to be located on the hill in Syracuse, the current location of
White became the school's first president and served as a professor in the Department of History. He commissioned Cornell's first architecture student, William Henry Miller, to build his president's mansion on campus.
White was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1869[24] and American Antiquarian Society in 1884.[25]
In 1891, Leland and Jane Stanford asked White to serve as the first president of Stanford University, which they had founded in Palo Alto, California. Although he refused, he recommended his former student David Starr Jordan.
Conflict thesis
At the time of Cornell's founding, White announced that it would be "an asylum for Science—where truth shall be sought for truth's sake, not stretched or cut exactly to fit Revealed Religion."
In 1869, White gave a lecture on "The Battle-Fields of Science" in which he argued that history showed the negative outcomes resulting from any attempt on the part of religion to interfere with the progress of science. Over the next 30 years, he refined his analysis, expanding his case studies to include nearly every field of science over the entire history of Christianity but also narrowing his target from "religion" through "ecclesiasticism" to "dogmatic theology."
The final result was the two-volume A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom (1896) in which he asserted the conflict thesis of science being against dogmatic theology. Initially less popular than John William Draper's History of the Conflict between Religion and Science (1874), White's book became an influential text in the 19th century on the relationship between religion and science. White's conflict thesis has been widely rejected among contemporary historians of science.[27][28][29] The warfare depiction remains a popular view among critics of religion.[30]
Diplomat
While at Cornell, in 1871, he took leave to serve as a Commissioner to
Later, White was appointed as the American ambassador to Germany (1879–1881). After returning to the United States, he was elected as the first president of the
Following his resignation in 1885 as Cornell's president, White served as the minister to Russia (1892–1894), president of the American delegation to
In 1904, White published his Autobiography, which he had written while he was relaxing in Italy after his retirement from the Department of State with the change in administrations. Cornell's third president, Jacob Gould Schurman, was appointed as ambassador to Germany from 1925 to 1929.
At the onset of World War I, White supported the German cause within Europe because he had strong professional and emotional ties to Germany. By the summer of 1915, he retreated from this position and refrained from offering any support either publicly or privately.[32] In the fall of 1916, President Woodrow Wilson appointed White to a peace commission to prepare a treaty with China.[33] As of December 1916, White had reduced some of his obligations, resigning from the Smithsonian Board of Regents and the trustees of the Carnegie Institution.[33]
Bibliophile
Over the course of his career, White
In 1879, White enlisted George Lincoln Burr, a former undergraduate assistant for one of his seminars, to manage the rare books collection. Though Burr would later hold other positions at the university, such as Professor of History, he remained White's collaborator and head of this collection until 1922 by traveling over Europe, locating and amassing books that White wanted. In particular, he built the collections on the Reformation, witchcraft, and the French Revolution.[35] Today, White's collection is housed primarily in the Cornell Archives and in the Andrew Dickson White Reading Room (formally known as the "President White Library of History and Political Science") at Uris Library on the Ithaca Campus. The A.D. White Reading Room was designed by William Henry Miller, who had also designed White's mansion on campus.
While serving in
Personal life
White married twice. His first marriage, on September 27, 1857, was to Mary Amanda Outwater (February 10, 1836 – June 8, 1887), daughter of Peter Outwater and Lucia M. Phillips of Syracuse. Mary's maternal grandmother Amanda Danforth, daughter of Asa Danforth Jr. and wife of Elijah Phillips Jr., was the first white child born in what would become
Andrew and Mary had three children together: Frederick Davies White, who committed
After three years as a widower, in 1890, White married Helen Magill, the daughter of Edward Magill, Swarthmore College's second president. She was the first woman in the United States to earn a Ph.D.[38] Like her husband, Helen was a social scientist and educator; the two met at a conference where she was presenting a paper. Together, Helen and Andrew had three children.
Death and legacy
On October 26, 1918, White suffered a slight paralytic stroke following a severe illness of several days.[19] On the morning of Monday, November 4, White died at home in Ithaca.[39] Three days later, on November 7, on what would have been White's 86th birthday, White was interred at Sage Chapel on the Cornell campus. The chapel was filled to capacity by faculty, trustees, and other well-wishers.[40]
White's body resides in a sarcophagus in the Memorial Room with those of other persons deemed influential in the founding and early years of the university, including co-founder Ezra Cornell and benefactor Jennie McGraw-Fiske. His marble sarcophagus was designed in the popular Art Nouveau style. It features crests of countries and institutions that played important roles in White's life. For example, the adjacent picture shows the crests of the two countries where White was an ambassador; the coat of arms of Imperial Germany is on left and Saint George, a variation on the coat of arms of Moscow, representing Russia, is on the right.
The sarcophagus was completed in 1926 by sculptor Lee Oskar Lawrie (1877–1963), who also created sculptures adorning Myron Taylor Hall at Cornell. Lawrie is perhaps best known for his Atlas statue at Rockefeller Center in New York City.[41]
In his will, White left $500,000 ($9.73 million in 2022) to Cornell University, in addition to the considerable sums donated to the institution earlier in his life.
Cornell University
In his 1904 autobiography, The Autobiography of Andrew Dickson White, White wrote:
During my life, which is now extending beyond the allotted span of threescore and ten, I have been engaged after the manner of my countrymen, in many sorts of work, have become interested in many conditions of men have joined in many efforts which I hope have been of use; but, most of all, I have been interested in the founding and maintaining of Cornell University, and by the part, I have taken in that, more than by any other work of my life I hope to be judged.
— Andrew Dickson White, The Autobiography of Andrew Dickson White (1904)
Until at least the mid-20th century, Cornell undergraduates with the surname 'White' were traditionally given the nickname 'Andy' in reference to White. Notably, E. B. White, author of the world-famous children's book Charlotte's Web, continued to go by the nickname 'Andy' for the rest of his life after his undergraduate years at Cornell.[42]
Legacy and honors
Historian Benjamin G, Rader argues that in creating Cornell:
White championed nondenominationalism, coeducation, an elective curriculum, and academic freedom. These positions won him a lasting reputation as a pioneer in the history of higher education.[43]
According to professor Geoffrey Blodgett, White confronted a series of complex challenges in his long career:
Above all, the creation from scratch of a large, high-quality, coeducational, nonsectarian public university in the cockpit of post-Civil War, educational politics was an organizational chore of awesome subtlety for man of White's genteel background and soaring ideals."[44]
White was awarded numerous honorary degrees, including:
- University of Michigan, LL.D. (1867)
- Cornell University, LL.D. (1886)
- Yale University, LL.D. (1887)
- Columbia University, L.H.D. (1887)
- University of Jena, Ph.D. (1889)
- St. Andrew's University, LL.D. (October 1902)[45]
- Johns Hopkins University, LL.D. (1902)
- University of Oxford, D.C.L. in connection with the Bodleian Library tercentenary (October 1902)[46]
- Dartmouth College, LL.D. (1906)
Gallery
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1878
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1881
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1882 - Seated right of center with the Cornell faculty
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1885 - Seen sitting on the far right with the founding members of the American Historical Association
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1896 - Featured inPopular Science Monthly
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In Berlin, 1900
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C.1905 - Gelatin silver photograph of White
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An undated signature of White
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c. about 1905 - Gelatin silver print cabinet card photo and undated signature of Andrew D. White. Possible original photo that was used in the original Autobiography of Andrew Dickson White book
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1906 - White and Goldwin Smith at the opening of Goldwin Smith Hall. A statue of White was later installed in front of the building.
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An autographed copy of Autobiography of Andrew D. White Volume 1, dated June 23, 1916
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White, 1910
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1915 - Featured in The New York Times
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An undated photograph of White, published c.1918 in the Cornell Alumni Magazine after his death
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c. about 1915 - Standing near his statue on the Cornell campus
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The statue of White on the Cornell Arts Quad by Karl Bitter
Selected bibliography
- Outlines of a Course of Lectures on History (1861).
- Syllabus of Lectures on Modern History (1876).
- A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom, 2 vols. (1896), online at Gutenberg text file.
- Seven Great Statesmen in the Warfare of Humanity with Unreason (1910).
- The Autobiography of Andrew Dickson White (1911), online at Autobiography of Andrew Dickson White: Vol. 1, Vol. 2
- Fiat Money Inflation in France (1912), e-text
See also
References
Citations
- ^ Bishop, 33–34
- ^ "Dr. A.D. White Dies. A Cornell Founder. President of University for 18 Years Dies in Ithaca Close to His 86th Birthday. Twice Envoy to Germany. Educator Who Sought to Broaden Scope of Colleges Had Also Served as Minister to Russia. Fought for Reform in Colleges. Spent Many Years in Education". The New York Times. November 5, 1918. Retrieved March 31, 2010.
Dr. Andrew D. White, first President of Cornell University, former Ambassador to Germany, and Minister to Russia, died at 8:30 o'clock this morning after a short illness following a stroke of paralysis.
- ^ a b "The White Family". The Political Graveyard. Retrieved May 15, 2009.
- ^ a b c d "ANDREW DICKSON WHITE, M.A., LL.D., L.H.D." Rootsweb. Archived from the original on June 20, 2008. Retrieved May 15, 2009.
- ^ "Homer, N.Y.: A Town and its Hall" (PDF). Village of Homer, New York. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 7, 2010. Retrieved May 15, 2009.
- ^ Appleton's Cyclopædia of American Biography edited by James Grant Wilson, John Fiske (D. Appleton and Company, 1889), pp. 467–468. With etching image of ADWhite, and signature reproduction.
- ^ a b White (1904), pg. 54
- ^ *"Bonesmen 1833–1899". Fleshing Out Skull and Bones. Archived from the original on August 11, 2011. Retrieved March 15, 2011.
- ^ Henry Sweetser Burrage, Albert Roscoe Stubbs (1909). Genealogical and Family History of the State of Maine. Lewis historical publishing Company. p. 1174.
- ^ White (1904), 31
- ^ ΑΣΦ. "ΑΣΦ - Rockledge". Archived from the original on May 9, 2008. Retrieved May 22, 2009.
- ^ White (1904), pg. 32
- ^ "Yale College—The De Forest Prize.", The New York Times, 18 June 1853, [1]
- ^ White (1904), pg. 33–34
- American Historical Society. pp. 321–326.
- ^ a b Finch, pg. 7
- ^ "U-M Heritage: Professor White's trees". Archived from the original on June 6, 2010. Retrieved July 31, 2010.
- ^ "The State. Miscellaneous Returns" (PDF). The New York Times. November 4, 1863. Retrieved May 27, 2009.
- ^ a b c d e f Andrew Dickson White (PDF). Cornell Alumni Magazine. November–December 1918. Retrieved May 20, 2009.
- ^ 1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved February 29, 2024.
- ^ Clarence J. Karier (1986). The Individual, Society, and Education. University of Illinois Press. p. 68.
- ^ Goldwin Smith, Reminiscences (New York, 1911), p.371;quoted in Morris Bishop(1962), p.11, A History of Cornell. Cornell University Press
- ^ SWANN Printed & Manuscript African Americana. March 1, 2012. p. 69.
- ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved April 26, 2021.
- ^ "MemberList: W". www.americanantiquarian.org. American Antiquarian Society. Retrieved February 7, 2023.
- ^ Lindberg and Numbers 1986, pp. 2–3
- ISBN 978-0-8018-7038-5".
- ISBN 9780226750200.
- ^ Quotation: "In its traditional forms, the conflict thesis has been largely discredited." (p. 42) Brooke, J.H. (1991). Science and Religion: Some Historical Perspectives. Cambridge University Press.
- ISBN 978-0-8018-7038-5.
- ^ "Andrew Dickson White, President, 1866-1885". Cornell University. Archived from the original on June 10, 2007. Retrieved January 30, 2008.
- ^ Finch, pg. 65
- ^ a b Finch, pg. 66
- ^ "Architecture Clientele". Cornell University Fine Arts Library. Archived from the original on July 7, 2010.
- ^ "Andrew Dickson White Library". Cornell University Library.
- ^ "Ambassador White's Only Son a Suicide" (PDF). The New York Times. July 9, 1901.
- ^ "Mrs. A.D. White Falls Dead". The New York Times. June 9, 1887. p. 4.
- ^ White, Andrew Dickson (1896). A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom. D. Appleton and Company.
- ^ "Cornell University-Office of the President-Andrew Dickson White". Cornell University Office of the President. Retrieved May 20, 2009.
- ^ Jacob Gould Schurman (1918). 26th Annual Report of the President. Cornell University. p. 5.
- ^ Gregory Paul Harm, Cited from a page from the Lee Lawrie Archives, Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
- ^ Stephen, Charles. "Review: 'Story of Charlotte's Web' tells of author's love affair with the creatures of the natural world". Lincoln Journal Star. Retrieved August 12, 2011.
- ^ Benjamin G, Rader, "Review" Journal of American History (March 1980) 66#4 p. 958.
- ^ Geoffrey Blodgett, ”Review” in ‘’American Historical Review’’ (Feb. 1980) 85#1 p. 226.
- ^ "University intelligence". The Times. No. 36906. London. October 23, 1902. p. 9.
- ^ "University intelligence". The Times. No. 36893. London. October 8, 1902. p. 4.
Sources
- White, Andrew Dickson (1904). Autobiography of Andrew Dickson White. The Century Co.
- Bishop, Morris (1962). A History of Cornell. ISBN 978-0-8014-0036-0.
- Finch, Henry, ed. (1970). The Andrew Dickson White Papers at Cornell University, 1846–1919. Cornell University Archives.
Further reading
- Popular Science MonthlyVolume 48, February 1896
- Altschuler, Glenn C. (March 1979). Andrew D. White—Educator, Historian, Diplomat. Ithaca, New York: ISBN 978-0-8014-1156-4.
- Altschuler, Glenn C. (1999) "White, Andrew Dickson (1832-1918), university president and diplomat " American National Biography
- Beach, Mark B. "Andrew Dickson White as ex-president: The plight of a retired reformer." American Quarterly 17.2 (1965): 239-247.[Beach, Mark B. "Andrew Dickson White as ex-president: The plight of a retired reformer." American Quarterly 17.2 (1965): 239-247. online]
- ISBN 978-3-88099-624-3.
- ISBN 978-0-520-05692-3.
- Lindberg, David C.; Numbers, Ronald L. (1987). "Beyond War and Peace: A Reappraisal of the Encounter between Christianity and Science". OCLC 61313836.
- Engst, Elaine D.; Dimunation, Mark (1996). A Legacy of Ideas: Andrew Dickson White and the Founding of the Cornell University Library. An exhibition celebrating the Thirty-Seventh Preconference of the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries, a Division of the American Library Association. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Library.
- Ungureanu, James C. Science, Religion, and the Protestant Tradition: Retracing the Origins of Conflict. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2019.
External links
Cornell University links
- "Office of the Presidency: Andrew Dickson White". Cornell University. Retrieved October 5, 2007. Brief history of White
- "Presidents Exhibition: Andrew Dickson White, Presidency". Cornell University Library. Retrieved October 5, 2007.
- "Presidents Exhibition: Andrew Dickson White, Inauguration". Cornell University Library. Retrieved October 5, 2007.
- "Andrew Dickson White Collection of Architectural Photographs". Cornell University Library. Retrieved October 5, 2007.
- "Andrew Dickson White Library". Cornell University Library. Retrieved October 5, 2007.
- "Andrew Dickson White's Book Collection". Cornell University Library. Retrieved October 5, 2007.
- "Andrew Dickson White and the History of Cornell's College of Architecture, Art, and Planning". Cornell University Library. Archived from the original on August 20, 2007. Retrieved October 5, 2007.
Other links
- Works by Andrew Dickson White at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Andrew Dickson White at Internet Archive
- Works by Andrew Dickson White at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- "Famous People of the Finger Lakes". ilovethefingerlakes.com. Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved October 5, 2007. History of White [Ezra Cornell, Andrew Dickson White and the Establishment of Cornell University]
- "The Mythical Conflict between Science and Religion". bede.org.uk. Archived from the original on October 15, 2007. Retrieved October 5, 2007. Addresses White's scholarship.
- A.D. White's Architectural Photos A collection within the Flickr stream of Cornell University Library. Specifically includes A.D. White's photographs of European, Latin American, and Middle Eastern architecture.
- "U-M Heritage: Professor White's Trees". Michigan Today. Archived from the original on June 6, 2010. Retrieved July 31, 2010. Essay and slideshow about White's lasting mark on the University of Michigan's campus.