Background
ELIOT, Charles William was born on March 20, 1834 in Boston, Massachusetts, United States.
ELIOT, Charles William was born on March 20, 1834 in Boston, Massachusetts, United States.
Eliot was educated at the Boston Latin School and Harvard College, from which he graduated in 1853.
After graduating from college he became a mathematics tutor at Harvard, and was assistant professor of mathematics and chemistry from 1858 to 1863. After two years in Europe studying chemistry and pedagogy he became professor of analytical chemistry in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In 1869 he was appointed president of Harvard University, retiring in 1909. Eliot's career cannot be separated from the development of Harvard as a university. During his forty years as president, he transformed Harvard from a provincial college with a few professional schools into a great university. His policy as an educator was determined by his belief in liberty. He inaugurated the elective system under which students were permitted to choose their own studies. He sought to develop character by holding each student responsible for his own habits and conduct.
Eliot's influence as a leader in education was felt beyond the limits of Harvard. In 1890, as chairman of a national committee on secondary school studies, Dr. Eliot advanced his belief that public schools should aim to offer the most benefit to the large majority of students whose education is unlikely to go further, rather than to serve primarily as preparation for college. He urged the elimination of unrelated subjects, and proposed instead a careful integration of the entire high school program.
In his last year at Harvard he undertook the editorship of the Harvard Classics, a set of fifty volumes of the literature of the world; Dr. Eliot's Five-Foot Shelf of Books became a symbol for self-education to Americans. After his retirement from Harvard in 1909, Dr. Eliot became increasingly interested and active in public affairs. In 1911 he traveled around the world on a mission sponsored by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He was a strong supporter of civil service reform. In industry he believed in collective bargaining, but opposed the closed shop and the uniform eight-hour day. He was an impressive public speaker and a courageous administrator. During his last years he was a strong advocate of the Eighteenth (Prohibition) Amendment and of the League of Nations.
He was married twice, first in 1858 to Ellen Derby Peabody (d. 1869), and in 1877 to Grace Mellen Hopkinson.