Career
The son of a Massachusetts judge, he was an 1841 Dartmouth graduate and practiced law in Boston and Washington, D.C. A civic leader, he helped introduce gaslight to Cambridge, Massachusetts., took a leading role in building one of the country's first streetcar lines, and helped develop and expand telephone service.He served 12 years on the Massachusetts Board of Education and, with his son-in-law Alexander Graham Bell, founded the journal Science. He was founder and first president (1888–97) of the National Geographic Society.