Ephraim Whitman Gurney was an American educator, first of all a scholar, grounded in the traditional classical gaining and prepared to give instruction in any subject within the range of humane learning— philosophy, history, or law.
Background
Ephraim Whitman Gurney was born in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, on February 18, 1829, he was the son of Nathan and Sarah (Whitman) Gurney.
His father was superintendent of the Massachusetts General Hospital.
Education
Ephraim Whitman Gurney graduated from the Harvard College in 1852.
Career
After graduation from Harvard College in 1852, Ephraim Whitman Gurney taught for a short time in the school of D. B. Tower on Park Street, Boston, and then opened a classical and scientific school for boys in Cambridge.
In 1857 he was appointed tutor in Greek and Latin at Harvard College, was advanced to an assistant professorship in 1863, transferred to the department of philosophy in 1867, and in the following year, for the department of history.
Made professor in 1869, he received in 1877 the title of professor of history and Roman law, and in 1886, shortly before his untimely death, he was given the Professorship of Ancient and Modern History.
His academic career thus illustrates the Prevailing character of higher education in America at the time. He was first of all a scholar, grounded in the traditional classical Gaining and prepared to give instruction in any subject within the range of humane learning— classics, philosophy, history, or law. He became a teacher of history because he found there the most obvious opportunity to utilize his wide reading and to satisfy his scholarly tastes.
For two years, 1868 to 1870, he was associated with James Russell Lowell as editor of the North American Review, then the most important American literary periodical, but his name does not appear in the list of contributors at any time.
The foundation of the New York Nation under his friend, L. Godkin, gave him a welcome vehicle for the expression of his thought without the embarrassment of publicity, and for many years he contributed valuable articles of literary and political criticism. His marriage, October 3, 1868, to Ellen Sturgis Hooper, daughter of Dr. Robert William Hooper, brought him into close association with an important circle of Boston society.
He built a commodious house on the outskirts of Cambridge and began there the course of generous hospitality to students, colleagues, and visiting scholars which was to be one of his most notable contributions to the academic life of his day.
The coming of Charles William Eliot to the presidency of the university in 1869, marking a decisive epoch in the history of the institution, opened for Gurney new opportunities of usefulness. In the period of transition from the semi-rural college to the all-embracing university, no one stood closer to the great leader than he. A personal friendship widened out into mutual confidence and hearty cooperation.
In 1870 the office of Dean of the Faculty of Harvard College was created, and Gurney was the first incumbent. His administration established the tradition of an office designed primarily to relieve the president of the many details of personal dealings with students, but capable of development into a powerful agency for good.
His interpretation of his function was guided first and always by the imperative claims of scholarship and academic honor.
Ephraim Whitman Gurney shared with his brother-in-law, Henry Adams, the arduous task of building up a department of history based upon the new principle of independent study. In his method of instruction- he never departed from the traditional textbook and recitation, but he knew how to lift this dreary routine into the higher air of real reflection and critical discussion.
The last years of his life were clouded by domestic sorrow and the slow process of an insidious disease borne with exemplary fortitude.
Achievements
Personality
Ephraim Whitman Gurney was an admirable representative of the fast vanishing “donnish” type. He loved learning for its own sake. The college was his world. His happiness was in books and in the human relations growing out of his occupation with them. Though master of an exceptionally easy and lucid style, he was singularly lacking in the impulse to literary production. A ready talker, he never delivered formal lectures either to his students or to the larger public.
Connections
He married on October 3, 1868, to Ellen Sturgis Hooper, daughter of Dr. Robert William Hooper.