View source for Jacob Gould Schurman

{{short description|American diplomat (1854–1942)}}
{{Use American English|date=February 2024}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2024}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Jacob Gould Schurman
| image               = June 1925 photo, Bundesarchiv Bild 102-09830, Jacob Gould Schurman (cropped).jpg
| caption             = Schurman in 1930
| title5              = President of [[Cornell University]]
| term_start5         = 1892
| term_end5           = 1920
| predecessor5        = [[Charles Kendall Adams]]
| successor5          = [[Livingston Farrand]]
| title4              = Chairman of the [[Schurman Commission|First Philippine Commission]]
| term_start4         = January 20, 1899
| term_end4           = March 16, 1900
| deputy4             = [[Elwell Otis]]
| predecessor4        = [[Diego de los Ríos]] (as [[Governor-General of the Philippines]]) 
| successor4          = [[William Howard Taft]] (as Governor-General)
| president4          = [[William McKinley]]
| title3              = [[United States Ambassador to Greece|United States Minister to Greece]]
| term_start3         = October 17, 1912
| term_end3           = August 18, 1913
| predecessor3        = George H. Moses
| successor3          = George F. Williams
| president3          = [[William Howard Taft]]<br/>Woodrow Wilson
| order2              = 4th
| minister_from2      = United States
| country2            = Montenegro
| term_start2         = July 21, 1913
| term_end2           = August 18, 1913
| predecessor2        = [[George H. Moses]]
| successor2          = [[George F. Williams]]
| president2          = [[Woodrow Wilson]]
| minister_from1      = United States
| country1            = China
| term_start1         = September 12, 1921
| term_end1           = April 15, 1925
| predecessor1        = [[Paul Samuel Reinsch|Paul Reinsch]]
| successor1          = [[John Van Antwerp MacMurray]]
| president1          = [[Warren G. Harding]]<br/>Calvin Coolidge
| order               = 9th
| ambassador_from     = United States
| country             = Germany
| term_start          = June 29, 1925
| term_end            = January 21, 1930
| predecessor         = [[Alanson B. Houghton]]
| successor           = [[Frederic M. Sackett]]
| president           = [[Calvin Coolidge]]<br/>[[Herbert Hoover]]
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1854|5|2|mf=y}}
| birth_place         = Freetown, [[Prince Edward Island]], Canada
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1942|8|12|1854|5|2}}
| death_place         = [[Bedford Hills, New York]], U.S.
| children            = 7, including [[Dorothy Schurman Hawes]]
| relations           = [[George Munro (philanthropist)|George Munro]] (father-in-law)
}}
'''Jacob Gould Schurman''' (May 2, 1854 – August 12, 1942) was a Canadian-American educator and diplomat, who served as President of [[Cornell University]] and [[United States Ambassador to Germany]].

==Early life and education==
Schurman was born at Freetown, [[Prince Edward Island]], Canada, on May 2, 1854 the son of Robert and Lydia Schurman.<ref name="nytobit">{{cite news|title=Jacob G. Schurman Is Dead Here at 88|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=August 13, 1942|page=19}}</ref> Schurman lived on his parents' farm as a child, then in 1867 took a job at a store near his home, which he held for two years.<ref name="President">{{cite news|title=President Schurman of Cornell|work=The New York Times|date=October 2, 1898|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1898/10/02/102124314.pdf}}</ref>

At the age of fifteen, Schurman entered the Summerside Grammar School on Prince Edward Island, and in 1870 he won a scholarship to study at [[Prince of Wales College]] for two years.  After Prince of Wales College, he studied for a year and a half at [[Acadia College]] in [[Nova Scotia]].<ref name="President"/>

In 1874, while a student at [[Acadia University|Acadia College]] in [[Wolfville, Nova Scotia]], he won the Canadian Gilchrist scholarship to study at the [[University of London]],<ref>{{cite web|last=Burns|first=Steven|title=Ethics and Socialism: Tensions in the Political Philosophy of J. G. Schurman|work=Journal of Canadian Studies|date=July 1, 1996|url=https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-10974368.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160911181436/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-10974368.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 11, 2016|quote=In 1874, after leading his class during two years of studies at Acadia College (now University) in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, he won the Gilchrist Scholarship for study at the University of London in a nationwide competitive examination.|via =HighBeam}}</ref> from which he received a [[Bachelor of Arts|BA]] degree in 1877 and an [[Master of Arts|MA]] in 1878. Schurman also studied in [[Paris]], [[Edinburgh]], [[Heidelberg]], [[Berlin]], [[University of Göttingen|Göttingen]], and Italy.<ref>{{cite book|title=The National magazine: an illustrated monthly|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v8xOAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA330|year=1922|publisher=Bostonian Publishing Company|pages=330–}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Significance of Schurman's Visit, Noted Educator to Deliver Lecture at Tabernacle Sunday Afternoon|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=336&dat=19081217&id=EJ4uAAAAIBAJ&pg=4781,3313847&hl=en|publisher=Deseret Evening News|date=December 18, 1908}}</ref><ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Schurman, Jacob Gould|volume=24|page=386}}</ref>

==Career==
He was professor of English literature, political economy and [[psychology]] at [[Acadia University|Acadia College]] from 1880 to 1882,<ref name=":0" /> of [[metaphysics]] and English literature at [[Dalhousie College]], [[Halifax Urban Area|Halifax, Nova Scotia]], in 1882–86,<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Fingard |first=Judith |author-link=Judith Fingard |title=Munro, George |url=https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/munro_george_12E.html |access-date=2023-12-21 |website=Dictionary of Canadian Biography}}</ref><ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Waite |first=Peter Busby |title=The Lives of Dalhousie University: Volume One, 1818-1925 |publisher=[[Dalhousie University]] |year=1994 |isbn=0-7735-1166-0 |volume=1 (1818-1925) |chapter=George Munro and the Big Change, 1879-1887 |author-link=P. B. Waite |chapter-url=https://digitaleditions.library.dal.ca/livesofdalv1/chapter/george-munro-and-the-big-change-1879-1887/}}</ref> and the Sage professor of philosophy (Sage professor) at [[Cornell University]] from 1886 to 1892,<ref name="EB1911"/> and Dean of the Sage School of Philosophy from 1891 to 1892, during which edited ''[[The Philosophical Review]]''.<ref name=":0">[//archive.org/stream/philosophicalrev01cornuoft#page/n6/mode/1up Profile], ''The Philosophical Review'', volume 1 (1892).</ref>

In 1892, he became the third president of [[Cornell University]], a position he held until 1920. He received an LL.D ([[honoris causa]]) from the [[University of Edinburgh]] in March 1902.<ref>{{cite newspaper The Times|title=University intelligence|date=March 10, 1902|page=11|issue=36711}}</ref>

===Cornell University president===
As president of [[Cornell University]], Schurman helped invent the modern state-supported research university. Under the Morrill Act, states were obligated to fund the maintenance of land grant college facilities, but were not obligated to fund operations. Subsequent laws required states to match federal funds for agricultural research stations and cooperative extension. 

In his inaugural address as Cornell's third president on November 11, 1892, Schurman announced his intention to enlist the financial support of the state.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/presidents/view_item.php?sec=4&sub=22|title=Inaugurating the Presidents|access-date=February 1, 2010}}</ref> Cornell, which had been offering a four-year scholarship to one student in each New York assembly district every year and was the state's [[land-grant university]], was determined to convince the state to become a benefactor of the university. 

In 1894, the state legislature voted to give financial support for the establishment of the [[Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine|New York State College of Veterinary Medicine]] and to make annual appropriations for the college.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.vet.cornell.edu/about/history.htm |title=History and Archives of the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine |access-date=February 1, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100227081619/http://www.vet.cornell.edu/about/history.htm |archive-date=February 27, 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref> This set the precedents of privately controlled, state-supported [[statutory college]]s and cooperation between Cornell and the state. The annual state appropriations were later extended to agriculture, home economics, and following [[World War II]], industrial and labor relations.

====New York State College of Forestry at Cornell====
{{Main|New York State College of Forestry at Cornell}}
In 1898, Schurman persuaded the State Legislature to found the first forestry college in [[North America]], the [[New York State College of Forestry at Cornell|New York State College of Forestry]].<ref name=dnr>{{cite web|url=https://www.dnr.cornell.edu/mission/history/ |title=Department History |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071007112429/http://www.dnr.cornell.edu/mission/history/ |archive-date=October 7, 2007 |access-date=March 7, 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The College undertook to establish a {{convert|30000|acre|km2|adj=on}} demonstration forest in the Adirondacks, funded by New York State.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0L8LAAAAYAAJ&q=Brooklyn+Cooperage+Company%5D&pg=PA203|title=A history of the Adirondacks, Volume 2|first=Alfred Lee|last=Donaldson|pages=202–207|publisher=Century Co|year=1921|access-date=March 7, 2010}}</ref> However, the plans of the school's director [[Bernhard Fernow]] for the land drew criticism from neighbors, and Governor [[Benjamin B. Odell]] vetoed the 1903 appropriation for the school. 

In response, Cornell closed the school.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9A05EEDB1339E333A2575BC1A9609C946297D6CF|title=Cornll School of Forestry Suspended.; Action Followed Failure of State to Provide Means for Its Support.|work=New York Times|date=June 18, 1903|access-date=September 5, 2009}}</ref> Subsequently, in 1911, the State Legislature established a [[State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry|New York State College of Forestry]] at Syracuse University, and the remains of Cornell's program became the Department of Natural Resources in its Agriculture College in 1910.<ref name=dnr/> The State later followed the same model to establish a state college of ceramics at [[Alfred University]].

Schurman was elected to the [[American Philosophical Society]] in 1908.<ref>{{Cite web |title=APS Member History |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Jacob+G.+Schurman&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |access-date=2023-12-21 |website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref>

In 1911, Schurman ruled in favor of admitting two Black female students to [[Sage Hall]] despite 269 of their white female peers petitioning to deny them residency.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Early Black Women at Cornell|url=https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/earlyblackwomen/challenge/index.html|access-date=2020-06-10|website=rmc.library.cornell.edu}}</ref>

===International and governmental career===
[[File:Original Cornerstone of the Shanghai American Club.jpg|thumb|The cornerstone of the Shanghai American Club laid by Schurman in 1924]]
[[File:Schurmans1925.png|alt=Three white people stand on a ship's deck for a photo: a older woman in a floral dress and dark hat, an older balding man in a suit, and a young woman in a cloche hat and dress with dark buttons down the front|thumb|Schurman with his wife and youngest daughter [[Dorothy Schurman Hawes]] in 1925]]
He was the chairman of the [[Schurman Commission|First United States Philippine Commission]] in 1899, and wrote a part of the official report to Congress and ''Philippine Affairs--A Retrospect and an Outlook'' (1902). With [[J. E. Creighton]] and [[James Seth]] he founded in 1892 ''[[The Philosophical Review]]''. He also wrote '' Kantian Ethics and the Ethics of Evolution'' (1881); ''The Ethical Import of [[Darwinism]]'' (1888); ''Belief in God'' (1890), and ''Agnosticism and Religion'' (1896).<ref name="EB1911"/>

Schurman served as United States Ambassador to [[Greece]] and [[Montenegro]] in 1912–13. In 1914 he declared support for [[Women's suffrage in the United States|female suffrage]].<ref name="EB1922">{{Cite EB1922|wstitle=Schurman, Jacob Gould|volume=32|page=377}}</ref>

During [[World War I]] he insisted that American rights be respected; after the [[Sinking of the RMS Lusitania|sinking of the Lusitania]] he pointed out that the action threatened to erase the distinction between combatants and non-combatants. In 1917 he was appointed a member of the New York State Food Commission, but resigned in June 1918 to go to France as lecturer to American soldiers.<ref name="EB1922"/>

After the war, he opposed many of the policies of [[Woodrow Wilson]], but under [[Warren G. Harding|Warren Harding]], after resigning as president of Cornell in 1920,<ref name="EB1922"/> he was Minister to [[China]] between 1921 and 1925, and then as Ambassador to [[Germany]] between 1925 and 1929, a position twice previously held by Cornell's first president [[Andrew Dickson White]]. In 1917 Schurman was appointed honorary chairman of the American [[Relief Committee for Greeks of Asia Minor]], an organization which provided humanitarian relief to Ottoman Greeks during the [[Greek genocide]]. He retired to [[Bedford Hills, New York]] in 1930.

In 1960, Cornell named the administrative wing of its [[Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine|veterinary school]] Jacob Gould Schurman Hall in his honor.<ref>{{cite news|title=Cornell Honors Former Head|work=The New York Times|date=April 26, 1960|page=40}}</ref> In 2021, the Cornell Filipino Association sought to discredit Schurman due to the work of the Philippine Commission and demanded that his name be removed from the building. After hearing from both sides, Cornell President Martha Pollack rejected the move.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.thecornellreview.org/cancel-culture-discovers-jacob-gould-schurman/|title=Cancel Culture Discovers Jacob Gould Schurman|date=Nov 1, 2021|work=Cornell Review|accessdate=2022-03-13}}</ref> In 1967, Jacob Gould Schurman III endowed the Schurman professorships in his honor. Cornell describes them as "one of the most prestigious chairs at the university."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2007/07/four-faculty-members-named-schurman-professors|title=Four faculty members named Schurman professors|work=Cornell Chronicle|date=July 20, 2007|accessdate=2022-03-13}}</ref>

== Personal life ==
Schurman married Barbara Forrest Munro (1865–1930) in 1884;<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" /> they had seven children, including youngest daughter [[Dorothy Schurman Hawes]], who wrote about [[China]].<ref name=":3">{{Cite news|date=1931-01-31|title=$60,000 TRUST FUND LEFT TO EMPLOYE; Wife of Jacob Gould Schurman Provided for Superintendent of Apartment in Will. READ ESTATE $1,894,937 Banker's Widow Had Many Rare Editions--Mrs. Croker Asks Accounting by Stepson. Mrs. C.S. Read Left $1,894,937. Mrs. Croker Asks Accounting. Ryan Contest Is Settled. H.E. Twitchell Estate $404,744. Family Gets B.B. McAlpin Property.|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1931/01/31/archives/60000-trust-fund-left-to-employe-wife-of-jacob-gould-schurman.html|access-date=2021-07-18|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Schurman's father-in-law was [[George Munro (philanthropist)|George Munro]]; in 1881, he endowed Schurman the chair in English literature and philosophy at [[Dalhousie University]], where Munro was the principal benefactor.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" />

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite book|last=Moser|first=Maynard|title=Jacob Gould Schurman--scholar, political activist, and ambassador of good will, 1892-1942|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SOFhalrynL4C|year=1982|publisher=[[Ayer Publishing]]|isbn=978-0-405-14100-3}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Jacob Gould Schurman}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20140117155104/http://www.cornell.edu/president/history_bio_schurman.cfm Cornell Presidency: Jacob Gould Schurman]
* [[Cornell University Library]] Presidents Exhibition: Jacob Gould Schurman ([https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/presidents/view_item.php?sec=3&sub=10 Presidency]; [https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/presidents/view_item.php?sec=4&sub=21 Inauguration])
* {{Gutenberg author |id=4066| name=Jacob Gould Schurman}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Jacob Gould Schurman}}
* {{PM20|FID=pe/016152}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-aca}}
{{succession box|title=[[List of presidents of Cornell University|President of Cornell University]]|before=[[Charles Kendall Adams]]|after=[[Livingston Farrand]]|years=1892–1920}}
{{s-gov}}
{{succession box|title=[[Schurman Commission|President of the Schurman Commission]] <br> ''(First Philippine Commission)''|before=''Newly created''|after=[[William Howard Taft]]<br>([[Taft Commission]])|years=March 4, 1899–March 16, 1900}}
{{s-dip}}
{{succession box|title=[[United States Ambassador to Greece|United States Minister to Greece]]|before=[[George H. Moses]]|after=[[George F. Williams]]|years =1912–1913}}
{{succession box|title=[[United States Ambassador to China|United States Envoy to the Republic of China]]|before=[[Paul Samuel Reinsch|Paul Reinsch]]|after=[[John MacMurray (politician)|John MacMurray]]|years=1921–1925}}
{{succession box|title=[[United States Ambassador to Germany]]|before=[[Alanson B. Houghton]]|after=[[Frederic M. Sackett]]|years=1925–1929}}
{{s-end}}

{{Schurman Commission}}
{{US Ambassadors to Greece}}
{{US Ambassadors to the PRC}}
{{US Ambassadors to Germany}}
{{Cornell University presidents}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schurman, Jacob Gould}}
[[Category:1854 births]]
[[Category:1942 deaths]]
[[Category:Acadia University alumni]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh]]
[[Category:Ambassadors of the United States to China]]
[[Category:Ambassadors of the United States to Germany]]
[[Category:Ambassadors of the United States to Greece]]
[[Category:Canadian emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:Canadian people of Dutch descent]]
[[Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society]]
[[Category:New York State College of Forestry]]
[[Category:Presidents of Cornell University]]
[[Category:People from Bedford Hills, New York]]
[[Category:People from Prince County, Prince Edward Island]]
[[Category:Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada)]]
[[Category:20th-century American diplomats]]