Jacob Gould Schurman

Jacob Gould Schurman ( May 22nd, 1854 in Freetown, Prince Edward Iceland, Canada, † August 12, 1942 ) was an American university professor and diplomat.

Life

Schurman had Dutch ancestors in New York. He studied at Acadia College in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. In 1875 he won thereby the Canadian Gilchrist Scholarship, a scholarship from the University of London; where he graduated in 1877 and BA in 1878 for MA. He continued his studies at the universities of Paris, Edinburgh, Heidelberg, Berlin and Göttingen.

As a professor of English literature, political science and psychology ( study of the German cultural and intellectual history ) Schurman taught at Acadia College ( 1880-1882 ) and at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia ( 1882-1886 ). As a professor of philosophy, he was then at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York ( 1886-1892 ). He was its president from 1892 to 1920.

On January 20, 1900, he was appointed as Chairman of the Schurman Commission, who worked in the Philippines. As ambassadors of the United States, he was in China (1921-1925) and Germany (1925-1929) worked; earlier he already served from 1912 to 1913 as an envoy in Greece. In retirement he lived from 1930 in Bedford Hills, New York.

Works

  • Philippine Affairs - A Retrospect and in Outlook (1902, as chairman of the First United States Philippine Commission since 1899 ).
  • Kantian Ethics and the Ethics of Evolution ( 1881)
  • The Ethical Import of Darwinism (1888 )
  • Belief in God (1890, about: faith in God )
  • Agnosticism and Religion ( 1896).

Honors

  • Since Schurman favor of the Ruprecht -Karls- University of Heidelberg in the U.S. a great fundraiser started with which the auditorium building much needed his former alma mater should be funded, he received in May 1928, together with Foreign Minister Gustav Stresemann, an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Arts Heidelberg University.
  • On December 17, 1928 Jacob Gould Schurman was awarded honorary citizenship of the city of Heidelberg.
  • At the inauguration ceremony of the new, designed by architect and city planner Karl Gruber university building, it came in 1931 for the first time in the history of German radio to a live broadcast in the United States.
  • The entryway to the 1931 newly constructed university building panel was compared with the faculty room in honor of the American sponsors of the German university, a large bronze founders mounted and erected a bronze bust of the initiator Jacob Gould Schurman. ( A suggestion for American Studies in Germany goes on with Schurman back ).
  • At Heidelberg the Neckar River, a section of the road layout was named after Schurman.
Acadia University Cultural history Geistesgeschichte Halifax Regional Municipality Heidelberg Center for American Studies Integrated Authority File
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