ELIOT, CHARLES WILLIAM

born March 20, 1834, Boston, Mass., U.S. died Aug. 22, 1926, Northeast Harbor, Maine American educator, leader in public affairs, president of Harvard University for 40 years, and editor of the 50-volume Harvard Classics (190910). Eliot graduated from Harvard in 1853 and was appointed assistant professor of mathematics and chemistry there in 1858. In 1867 he sailed for Europe, where he made a study of European educational systems. His published observations (in The Atlantic Monthly, 1869) brought his name to the attention of the directors of Harvard, who were looking for a new president. Eliot was inaugurated in October 1869. By the time he retired in 1909 he had elevated Harvard into an institution of world renown. Contending that higher learning in the United States needed to be broadened, deepened, and invigorated, Eliot demanded a place for the sciences as well as the humanities in any sound program of liberal education. To counter the rigidity of the Harvard curriculumwhich, following what was then general practice, was then almost totally prescribedEliot eliminated required courses. Under his successor, A. Lawrence Lowell, a balance was struck between required and elective courses. Eliot's influence reached into secondary education. During his presidency Harvard raised its entrance requirements, and other major colleges did likewise. This, in turn, effected a corresponding rise in secondary-school standards. In the report of a national committee on secondary education (1892), he urged the introduction of foreign languages and mathematics during the student's seventh school year. The idea was embodied later (1910) by the introduction of junior high schools in the United States. Eliot's writings include Educational Reform: Essays and Addresses 18691897 (1898) and University Administration (1908). Additional reading Henry James, Charles W. Eliot: President of Harvard University, 18691909, 2 vol. (1930, reprinted 1973), includes a bibliography of Eliot's books, articles, and published speeches. Hugh Hawkins, Between Harvard and America: The Educational Leadership of Charles W. Eliot (1972), is a biography and social history.