Andrew Dickson White
White in 1885
1st President of Cornell University
In office 1866–1885
Succeeded by	Charles Kendall Adams
16th United States Ambassador to Germany
In office June 19, 1879 – August 15, 1881
Preceded by	Bayard Taylor
Succeeded by	Aaron Augustus Sargent
1st President of the American Historical Association
In office 1884–1885
Preceded by	None
Succeeded by	George Bancroft
41st United States Ambassador to Russia
In office July 22, 1892 – October 1, 1894
Preceded by	Charles Emory Smith
Succeeded by	Clifton R. Breckinridge
24th United States Ambassador to Germany
In office June 12, 1897 – November 27, 1902
Preceded by	Edwin F. Uhl
Succeeded by	Charlemagne Tower, Jr.
Personal details
Born	(1832-11-07)November 7, 1832 Homer, New York 42°37′59″N 76°10′43″W / 42.633085°N 76.178657°W / 42.633085; -76.178657
Died	November 4, 1918(1918-11-04) (aged 85) A.D. White House, Ithaca, New York
Resting place	Sage Chapel, Ithaca, New York 42°26′50″N 76°29′05″W / 42.447307°N 76.484592°W / 42.447307; -76.484592Coordinates: 42°26′50″N 76°29′05″W / 42.447307°N 76.484592°W / 42.447307; -76.484592
Citizenship	American
Nationality	American
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Mary A. Outwater (1859-1888) Helen Magill (1890-1918)
Residence	A.D. White House, Ithaca, New York
Alma mater	Yale (A.B., M.A)
Religion	Episcopalian[1]
Signature	Andrew Dickson White's signature

Andrew Dickson White (November 7, 1832 – November 4, 1918) was a U.S. diplomat, historian, and educator, who was the co-founder of Cornell University.^[2]

Biography[link]

Family and personal life[link]

Andrew Dickson White was born on November 7, 1832 in Homer, New York to Clara (née Dickson) and Horace White.^[3] Clara was the daughter of Andrew Dickson, a New York State Assemblyman, and Horace was the son of Asa White, a farmer from Massachusetts whose once successful farm was ruined by a fire when Horace was 13.^[3] Horace, despite little formal education and an impoverished background, became a wealthy merchant and, in 1839, opened a successful bank in Syracuse.^[4] Andrew Dickson White thus entered the world, never to experience the poverty his father and grandfather had. He was baptized in 1835 at the Calvary Episcopal Church on the town green in Homer.^[5]

White married twice. He first married Mary Amanda Outwater (February 10, 1836 – June 8, 1887) on September 27, 1857 and they remained married until her death in 1887. Together, they had three children: Frederick Davies White, who committed suicide in 1901 after a prolonged series of illnesses while A.D. White was in Germany, Clara (White) Newbury, whom Andrew also outlived, and Ruth (White) Ferry. Following Mary's death in 1887, White went on a lecture tour and traveled in Europe with his close friend, Cornell's librarian, Daniel Willard Fiske.^[6] In 1890, White married Helen Magill, the daughter of Swarthmore College's second president, Edward Magill. She holds the distinction of being the first female Ph.D. recipient in the United States. Like her husband, Helen was a social scientist and educator and the two met at a conference where she was presenting. Together, Helen and Andrew had one daughter, Karin White.^[6]

His cousin was Edwin White, an artist of the Luminism/Hudson River schools,^[7] and his nephew was Horace White, governor of New York.

Education[link]

Beginning in the fall of 1849, White spent his first year of college at Geneva College (known today as Hobart and William Smith College) at the insistence of his father.^[8] He was inducted as member of Sigma Phi. In his autobiography, he recalled that he had felt that his time at Geneva was "wasted" by being at the small Episcopalian school, instead of at "one of the larger New England universities".^[8] Rather than continue "wasting" his time, White dropped out in 1850. After a resulting period of estrangement from his father, White successfully convinced his father to allow him to transfer to Yale University.

At Yale, he was a classmate of Daniel Coit Gilman, who would later serve as first president of Johns Hopkins University. The two were members of the Skull and Bones^[9] secret society and would remain close friends, traveling together in Europe after graduation and serving together on the Venezuela Boundary Commission (1895–96). His roommate was Thomas Frederick Davies, third bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan, 1889–1905.^[4] Other members of White's graduating year included Edmund Clarence Stedman, the poet and essayist, Wayne MacVeagh, Attorney General of the United States and U.S. Ambassador to Italy, and Hiram Bingham II, the missionary, collectively comprising the so-called "famous class of '53".^[10] According to White, a great influence on his academic career was Professor Noah Porter (later, Yale's president), who personally instructed him in rhetoric and remained a close personal friend until Porter's death.^[11]

Alpha Sigma Phi inducted White as a member in 1850 and he served as editor of the fraternity's publication, The Tomahawk. White remained active in the fraternity for the rest of his life, founding the Cornell chapter and serving as the national president from 1913 to 1915.^[12] He also served as an editor of The Lit., known today as the Yale Literary Magazine and belonged to Linonia, a literary and debating society.^[4] As a junior, White won the Yale literary prize for the best essay, writing on the topic "The Greater Distinctions in Statesmanship", a great shock to the campus as a senior traditionally wrote the winning essay.^[4][13] Also as a junior, he joined the junior society Psi Upsilon. In his senior year, White won the Clark Prize for English disputation and the De Forest prize for public oratory, speaking on the topic "The Diplomatic History of Modern Times". A medal valued at $100, the De Forest prize was, at the time, the largest prize of its kind at any educational institution American or otherwise.^[14] In White's honor, an anonymous donor later gave money endowing a prize for the best senior essay in American, European, or Third World history to be awarded in his name annually.^[15][16] In addition to academic pursuits, White was on the Yale crew team and competed in the first running of the Harvard–Yale Regatta in 1852.^[17]

After graduation, White left with his classmate Daniel Coit Gilman to travel and study further in Europe. Between 1853 and 1854, he studied at the Sorbonne, the Collège de France, and the University of Berlin and served as the translator for Thomas H. Seymour, the U.S. Ambassador to Russia, following Gilman's term as translator, despite not having studied French (the language of diplomacy and the Russian royal court) prior to his studies in Europe. After he returned the United States, White re-enrolled at Yale to earn an M.A. in History and be inducted into Phi Beta Kappa in 1856.^[18]

Early professional life[link]

In October 1858, White accepted a position as a Professor of History and English literature at the University of Michigan, where he remained on faculty until 1863.^[19] White made his lasting mark on the grounds of the university by enrolling students to plant elms along the walkways on The Diag.^[20] Between 1862 and 1863, he traveled to Europe to lobby France and England to assist the United States in the American Civil War or, at least, not come to the aid of The Confederacy.^[19]

Cornell University[link]

In 1863, White returned to reside in Syracuse for business reasons and, in November, was elected to the New York State Senate running on the Union Party ticket.^[21] In the senate, White made the acquaintance of fellow upstate senator Ezra Cornell, a self-taught Quaker farmer from Ithaca who had made a modest fortune in the telegraph industry.^[6] Around this time, the task came upon the senators to decide how to best use the higher education funding provided by the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act, which allocated money in the form of timber land in the midwest that could be sold as states saw fit. Through effective management by Cornell, New York generated about $2.5 million (~$43 million in 2008 dollars) from its allotted scrip, a greater yield per acre than any state, except, perhaps, California.^[22] The initial push in the senate was to divvy the funds amongst the numerous, small state colleges. White fervently opposed this proposal, arguing that the money would be more effectively used if it endowed only one university. Ezra Cornell agreed, telling White "I have about half a million dollars more than my family will need: what is the best thing I can do with it for the State?" To which, White immediately replied "The best thing you can do with it is to establish or strengthen some institution of higher learning."^[6] The two thus combined their efforts to form a new university.