Background

He was born in Newark, New Jersey, third in a family of four sons of Samuel Ashbel and Louise (Wilson) Farrand. The Farrand family was of Huguenot descent, Nathaniel Farrand having come to America from England in the mid-seventeenth century. One of Farrand's older brothers, Wilson, became headmaster of the Newark Academy in succession to his father and was well known as a school administrator; and a younger brother, Max, became a distinguished historian.

Education

Livingston Farrand attended the Newark Academy, went to Princeton, from which he was graduated in 1888, and thence to the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York, the medical school of Columbia, from which he received the degree of M. D. in 1891.

Though his medical education was to be basic in his career, he was not attracted to the practice of medicine. Deciding to become a teacher, he spent two years in advanced study at Cambridge, England, and at Berlin, devoting especial attention to physiological psychology.

Career

In 1893 Farrand was appointed instructor in physiological psychology in Columbia College, being advanced to the rank of adjunct professor of psychology in 1901.

Farrand worked closely with Cattell, the two men comprising at this time the entire staff in psychology. While serving under Cattell, Farrand was secretary of the American Psychological Association (1895 - 1903). Farrand, however, turned more and more to anthropology, a subject in which Cattell was greatly interested and which was then closely associated with psychology at Columbia.

Franz Boas, who came to Columbia in 1896, undoubtedly strengthened Farrand's new interest, and in 1903 Farrand became professor of anthropology, a position which he held for more than ten years. Beginning with a study made in collaboration with Boas in 1898, Farrand's researches were concerned mainly with the cultures of the American Indians. He accompanied Boas on expeditions organized by the American Museum of Natural History to study the Indians of Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia and wrote three papers on his findings, published in the Museum's Memoirs (1900 and 1902).

His position as an anthropologist was recognized when he was selected to write the volume on the Indians--Basis of American History (1904)--in the extensive work of historical collaboration, The American Nation. While continuing to teach anthropology, Farrand entered the field of public health, in which he did pioneering work of the highest importance.

The National Tuberculosis Association was a pioneer organization in that it involved the cooperation of members of the medical profession and laymen to combat a particular disease; and in addition to its accomplishments in its own special domain it stimulated similar organized efforts in other fields of public health. Farrand made another major contribution to the anti-tuberculosis cause.

In 1917, while he was president of the University of Colorado, he was appointed chairman of a commission which the International Health Board of the Rockefeller Foundation sent to France to aid in dealing with the very serious problem posed by the increase of tuberculosis in that war-stricken country.

With France in the midst of her struggle for survival in World War I, the commission's task was a difficult and delicate one. Farrand, on leave of absence from the University of Colorado, remained on the commission for nearly two years, during which its work was so promising that the Rockefeller Foundation greatly increased its grants.

The value of his services to France in the building up of an effective anti-tuberculosis organization was recognized by the French government, which made him an officer of the Legion of Honor and later (1938) a commander of that order. Farrand's activities in the public health field were by no means confined to combating tuberculosis. He was active in the work of the American Public Health Association, which he served as treasurer and as editor of the American Journal of Public Health from 1912 to 1914.

In 1919 he was appointed chairman of the central committee (the executive head) of the American Red Cross, with whose activities in France he had been brought into close contact, and he held this position from March of that year to October 1921.

He was notably successful in guiding this great organization during the transitional period from war to peace, and under his leadership it was officially announced that public health in the United States was to be a major peacetime concern of the American Red Cross, a significant enlargement of its peacetime role.

While he was executive secretary of the National Tuberculosis Association there had been fruitful cooperation between it and the American Red Cross, especially important in the matter of fund-raising for anti-tuberculosis work by the sale of Christmas seals; and now, as chief executive of the latter, he was able to exert strong influence in the formation of the National Health Council, of which he was the first president. Later, as a member of the technical board of the Milbank Memorial Fund, a foundation concerned mainly with public health, Farrand had much to do with planning the so-called "New York Health Demonstrations" which the Fund conducted. He conceived of these demonstrations as a promising means of making available to the public the results of knowledge already in the possession of specialists.

In 1930 Governor Franklin Roosevelt appointed him chairman of a special public health commission, and from 1932 to 1939 Farrand was a member of the Public Health Council of the State of New York.

Early in 1914 Farrand had become president of the University of Colorado. During his administration its educational standards were raised, the legislature of Colorado was induced to provide for an extensive building program for the state's higher educational institutions, and the university's medical school was thoroughly reorganized.

His part in bringing about this reorganization, which was badly needed, was perhaps his most important contribution to the university's development; it fell to George Norlin, who served as acting president while Farrand was on leave and succeeded him as president, to carry out the plans that had been made. Though his stay at Colorado was brief, Farrand's personality, educational ideals, administrative ability, and qualities of democratic leadership won him the warm regard and respect of faculty and students alike.

He resigned from Colorado in 1919 to head the American Red Cross, but his achievements as a university president and medical educator were not forgotten, and when Cornell University had occasion to appoint a new president in succession to Jacob Gould Schurman, it turned to him.

Farrand served as president of Cornell from 1921 to 1937. When he went there, the university was in the midst of a great building program, and during the early years of his presidency a number of new buildings were added to its campus. This program was naturally checked by the great depression that began in 1929.

Farrand, however, was more concerned with research and teaching, with the quality and welfare of faculties and students, than with physical plant, and during his administration much was done in their interest.

Encouragement was given to research, requirements for admission and standards of accomplishment were raised in several of the university's colleges, courses and curricula were remodeled to meet new conditions, administrative organization was improved, physical education and athletics were thoroughly reorganized. For the members of Cornell's faculties Farrand's objective was to make possible "productive scholarship in an atmosphere of academic freedom"; and among its students he sought to inculcate a sense of public responsibility that would lead them to use their knowledge and training for the general welfare.

Increase in the university's endowments did not keep pace with increases at other major universities, and Cornell, which had held fifth place among university endowments in 1921, fell to ninth place in 1937, a fact that handicapped the university in its efforts to retain and acquire outstanding scholars. Nevertheless a survey of graduate instruction in American universities prepared by a committee of the American Council on Education about the time of Farrand's retirement rated Cornell as among the seven best universities in the country. While president of Cornell Farrand played an important part in the creation of a great medical center in New York City.

The Cornell Medical College and the New York Hospital, both located in the city, had for some time been cooperating in medical education, and in 1927 the formation of an organic association between them came under consideration. Farrand participated with Edward W. Sheldon, president of the New York Hospital, and Payne Whitney, a generous benefactor of both institutions, in formulating the project, which included the construction of new buildings on the East River, and formal articles of agreement were signed in June.

He died in New York City of bronchial pneumonia and empyema and was buried in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery in Newark.

Achievements

• In January 1905 he became executive secretary of the National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis, which had been founded in the preceding year to coordinate the activities of various groups in the country that were seeking to disseminate popular knowledge of the disease in the interest of its ultimate control. During the nine years of his tenure of this office, and thanks in great part to his organizing and administrative ability, wisdom, enthusiasm, and tact, the anti-tuberculosis movement grew rapidly. Early in 1914 Farrand had become president of the University of Colorado. The National Tuberculosis Association under his direction developed new techniques of public education; and his work in France was an early experiment by Americans in helping other nations to help themselves. Then, too, a common purpose underlay much of his career: a concern with the relation of mental health to physical health. It was this which led him into medical education--both the training of physicians and the teaching of laymen to understand their own health problems and assist in their solution.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Israel Putnam, Pioneer, Ranger, and Major-General, 1718-1790

    (Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We h...)

  • Twelfth and final report on the north-western tribes of Canada

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • Basis of American History, 1500 - 1900

    (This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 19...)

  • Folk-Tales of Salishan and Sahaptin Tribes - Primary Source Edition

    ( This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923....)

  • The Inauguration of Livingston Farrand, Fourth President of Cornell University: 20-Oct-21

    (Originally published in 1921. This volume from the Cornel...)

  • Israel Putnam, Pioneer, Ranger, and Major-General, 1718-1790 1901

    (Originally published in 1901. This volume from the Cornel...)

  • Basis of American history. 1500-1900. by Livingston Farrand .

    (Will be shipped from US. Used books may not include compa...)

  • Basis of American History, 1500-1900, Vol. 3 of 27 (Classic Reprint)

    (Vol. 8P relinunaries of the Revolutum, by George Elliott ...)

  • The Basis of Social Relations; a study in ethnic psychology
  • Traditions of the Quinault Indians (Olympic Peninsula, Washington State)

  • book

  • Basis of American History 1500-1900

Religion

The Farrand family was of Huguenot descent, Nathaniel Farrand having come to America from England in the mid-seventeenth century.

Views

A superb listener, with a sincere interest in people, he was able to look at problems impersonally and to disagree without antagonizing, qualities that served him well as an administrator. His widely ranging career reflects the scope of his intellectual interests, which made him a broad-minded university president. But his varied activities had more unity than is at first apparent. For one thing, much of the work that he attempted was of a pioneering nature. Anthropology when he taught it was still a new field.

Membership

He was a member of the National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis and of the Rockefeller Foundation.

Personality

Farrand was a genial and tolerant man.

Quotes from others about the person

• Dr. G. Canby Robinson, the first dean of the Medical College under the new association, has spoken of Farrand's "wise diplomacy" as an important factor in bringing it into being.

Connections

On February 1, 1901, Farrand married Margaret Kate Carleton of New York City, by whom he had five children: Margaret Propert, Louisa Wilson, John, Mary Dalton, and Robert Kitchell.

Father:

Samuel Ashbel Farrand

mother Louise (Wilson) Farrand

Wife:

Margaret Kate Carleton

daughter Margaret Propert Farrand daughter Louisa Wilson Farrand son John Farrand daughter Mary Dalton Farrand son Robert Kitchell Farrand

colleague:

Edward W. Sheldon

president of the New York Hospital, colleague Payne Whitney generous benefactor of institutions

colleague:

McKeen Cattell

Psychology as a laboratory science was still young in America, and James McKeen Cattell, who had come to Columbia in 1890, was one of its pioneers.