BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
The Schurman family was of Dutch descent, and after flourishing in
America, was forced to leave New York for Canada during the American Revolution
due to its Loyalist sympathies. Born on May 22, 1854 in Freetown, Prince Edward
Island, Canada, Jacob Gould Schurman early in his life demonstrated himself as
a talented student, and he earned a series of scholarships. After attending the
Prince of Wales College and Acadia College in Nova Scotia, he graduated in 1877
from the University of London with first class honors in mental and moral
science, attending other lectures at Manchester New College on mental and moral
philosophy and religion. He then studied philosophy for a year at Edinburgh
while simultaneously studying in London, earning there an M.A. and D.Sc. with
distinction, in 1878. Schurman then studied philosophy in Berlin, at Gottingen,
and at the University of Heidelberg. While in Berlin he made the acquaintance
of Andrew Dickson White, ambassador to Germany and president of Cornell
University
In 1880, Schurman returned to North America to become a professor of
English literature at Acadia College. From 1882 to 1886 he was professor of
English literature, rhetoric, and metaphysics at Dalhousie University.
From Dalhousie, Schurman moved to Cornell University, where he served
as a professor of Christian ethics and moral philosophy. His work at Cornell
came under the close sponsorship of University Trustee and benefactor Henry W.
Sage. When in 1890 Sage endowed the School of Philosophy, Schurman was
appointed dean. Two years later, in 1892, as Charles Kendall Adams ended his
troubled presidency of Cornell, Schurman became the third president of the
university, serving until 1920.
Schurman's stewardship of Cornell was characterized by the extensive
growth of the University's facilities, and its shift from a privately endowed
institution to its current coalition of state and private funding. Throughout
the twenty eight years of his presidency, Schurman was a proponent of academic
freedom and an advocate of a generally liberal intellectual atmosphere on
campus. During his presidency of Cornell, Schurman's scholastic pursuits and
writings gradually moved away from philosophy and toward public and
philanthropic endeavors. He became a presence in the national and New York
State Republican Parties, identifying himself with Charles Evans Hughes, and it
was thought that only his Canadian birth prevented him from seriously pursuing
the presidency of the United States. While still president of Cornell, Schurman
served as chairman of a commission examining social and political life in the
Philippines in 1899. In 1912 and 1913, he was minister to Greece and
Montegnegro during the Balkan Wars. In America, he served as vice president of
the New York State Constitutional Convention in 1915, and was a member of the
New York State Food Commission in 1917-1918
Upon leaving Cornell, Schurman went to Japan and the Far East, and
then served as minister to China from 1921 to 1925, a time of war and great
political upheaval. His pattern of finding himself in tumultuous times
continued when he served as the American ambassador to Germany from 1925 to
1930. The honor that was due him for his efforts to rebuild the University of
Heidelberg translated into popularity with the centrist forces in the Weimar
Republic.
After a lectureship in California and additional travels and writing
on international subjects, Schurman died in New York in 1942.
