Samuel Eliot (December 22, 1821 – September 14, 1898) was an American historian, educator, and statesman of Boston, Massachusetts and

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...

Biography

Eliot was born in Boston, the son of

William Havard Eliot William Havard Eliot (1796–1831) was an architect and builder of the Tremont House in Massachusetts, and he participated in the musical life of the city. His father was the banker Samuel Eliot. He was married to Margaret Boies (Bradford) Elio ...

(1796 - 1831) and Margaret Boies (Bradford) Eliot, and the grandson of banker

Samuel Eliot Samuel Eliot (December 22, 1821 – September 14, 1898) was an American historian, educator, and statesman of Boston, Massachusetts and Hartford, Connecticut. Biography Eliot was born in Boston, the son of William Havard Eliot (1796 - 1 ...

. His father built the Tremont House, participated in the musical life of the city, had variants of his names including Hayward, Harvard, Havard, Howard, and Elliott, and died suddenly in 1831 while campaigning for mayor. His mother was a daughter of Alden Bradford. Charles Eliot Norton was Eliot's cousin. Eliot graduated first in the class of 1839 at Harvard College and, after two years in a counting house in Boston, toured for four years in Europe in the early 1840s. During the decade following his return, he devoted himself to writing. However, on June 7, 1853, Eliot married Emily Marshall Otis (1832-1906) of Boston, and his writing career gradually drew to a close. Their daughter, Emily Marshall Eliot Morison, was the mother of noted historian Samuel Eliot Morison (1887–1976). In 1856, Eliot became professor of history and political science at Trinity College in

, and then served as Trinity's president from 1860 to 1864. In 1864 Eliot returned to Boston, though he continued to teach classes at Trinity until 1874. At Harvard, he was an overseer from 1866 to 1872 and a lecturer in history from 1870 to 1873. He also served from 1868 to 1872 as president of the

American Social Science Association In 1865, at Boston, Massachusetts, a society for the study of social questions was organized and given the name American Social Science Association. The group grew to where its membership totaled about 1,000 persons. About 30 corresponding members ...

. From 1872 to 1876 he served as headmaster of the Boston Girls' High and Normal School, and from 1878 to 1880 as superintendent of Boston Public Schools, later serving from 1885 to 1888 on the Boston School Committee. Eliot was a trustee of

Massachusetts General Hospital Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General or MGH) is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School located in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the third oldest general hospital in the United Stat ...

and of the Massachusetts School for the Feeble-Minded, and for 26 years a member and president of the board of trustees of the

Perkins Institute for the Blind Perkins School for the Blind, in Watertown, Massachusetts, was founded in 1829 and is the oldest school for the blind in the United States. It has also been known as the Perkins Institution for the Blind. Perkins manufactures its own Perkins Br ...

. He was also active as a trustee, director, etc., for

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...

, the Boston Athenaeum, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the

Massachusetts Bible Society The Massachusetts Bible Society is a Christian, ecumenical organization founded on July 6, 1809 at a ceremony in the Representatives Chamber of the Massachusetts State House. It was formally incorporated on February 10, 1810 and is the third olde ...

, and the

Massachusetts Historical Society The Massachusetts Historical Society is a major historical archive specializing in early American, Massachusetts, and New England history. The Massachusetts Historical Society was established in 1791 and is located at 1154 Boylston Street in Bost ...

. Eliot died of heart trouble on September 14, 1898, at

Beverly Farms, Massachusetts Beverly Farms is a neighborhood comprising the eastern part of the city of Beverly, Massachusetts, in Massachusetts's North Shore region, about 20 miles north of Boston. Beverly Farms is an oceanfront community with a population of about 3,500, e ...

, and is buried at

Mount Auburn Cemetery Mount Auburn Cemetery is the first rural cemetery, rural, or garden, cemetery in the United States, located on the line between Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge and Watertown, Massachusetts, Watertown in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Middl ...

Selected works

* ''Translations from the Spanish Poet José Zorilla'', (1846). * ''Passages from the History of Liberty'', (1847). * ''The Liberty of Rome'', (2 volumes, 1849) which was revised to form Part I of the ''History of Liberty: Part I, The Ancient Romans; Part II, The Early Christians'', (4 volumes, 1853). * ''Manual of United States History: From 1492 to 1850'', (1856). * ''Manual of the United States: From 1492 to 1872'', (1874). * ''Poetry for Children'', (1879). * ''Selections from American Authors: A Reading Book for School and Home'', (1879). * ''The Arabian Nights' Entertainments: Six Stories'', (1880).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eliot, Samuel 1821 births 1898 deaths 19th-century American historians 19th-century American male writers Writers from Boston 19th-century American people Writers from Hartford, Connecticut Eliot family (America) Harvard College alumni Historians from Massachusetts Presidents of Trinity College (Connecticut) Boston Public Schools superintendents American male non-fiction writers Historians from Connecticut Burials at Mount Auburn Cemetery