Andrew Dickson White

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Andrew Dickson White

White in 1885

1st

In office

1866–1885

Preceded by

Office established

Succeeded by

16th

In office

June 19, 1879

– August 15, 1881

Preceded by

Succeeded by

1st

In office

1884–1885

Preceded by

Office established

Succeeded by

41st

In office

July 22, 1892

– October 1, 1894

Preceded by

Succeeded by

24th

In office

June 12, 1897

– November 27, 1902

Preceded by

Succeeded by

Member of the

from the 22nd district

In office

1864–1867

Preceded by

Succeeded by

Personal details

Born

November 7, 1832

, U.S.

Died

November 4, 1918

(aged 85)

, U.S.

Resting

place

, Ithaca, New

York, U.S.

Height

5 ft 5 in (165 cm)

Spouses

Mary A. Outwater

(

1859; died 1887)

(

1890⁠–⁠1918)

Education

(

)

Signature

Andrew Dickson White

(November 7, 1832 – November 4, 1918) was an American

historian and educator who co-founded

, one of eight

universities in the

, and served as its

for nearly two decades. He was known for expanding the scope of college

curricula.

A politician, he had served as

and was

later appointed as U.S. ambassador to

and

He was one of the founders of the

, which states that science

and religion have historically been in conflict, and tried to prove it over

the course of approximately 800 pages in his

History of the Warfare of Science

with Theology in Christendom

Early life and education

[

]

Andrew and his brother dedicated

the spire of

to their mother

White as a junior or senior at

wearing his

White was born on November 7, 1832, in

, to Clara (née Dickson) and

Horace White.

Clara was the daughter of

, a

and his wife. Horace

was the son of Asa White, a farmer from

, and his wife. Their once-

successful farm was ruined by a fire when

Horace was 13.

Despite little formal education and

struggles with poverty after his family

lost their farm, Horace White became a

businessman and wealthy merchant. In 1839,

he opened what became

Horace and Clara White had

two children: Andrew Dickson and his brother. Andrew was baptized in 1835 at

the Calvary Episcopal Church on the

in Homer.

One of Andrew's cousins,

, became an artist of the

style

and

His nephew was

, governor of New York.

Beginning in the fall of 1849, White enrolled as an undergraduate at Geneva

College, known today as

, at the insistence

of his father.

He was inducted as a member of

in 1850 and

he served as editor of the fraternity's publication,

The Flame

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.

In his

autobiography, he recalled that he had felt that his time at Geneva was

"wasted" by being at the small

school instead of at "one of the

larger New England universities".

White dropped out in 1850.

After a period of estrangement, White persuaded his father to let him transfer

. At Yale, White was a classmate of

, who

later served as the first president of

The two were members of the

secret society and would remain

close friends. They traveled together in Europe after graduation and served

together on the

(1895–1896). His roommate was

, who later became the third bishop of the

, 1889–1905.

Other members of White's

graduating year included

, the poet and essayist;

and

;

and

, the missionary, collectively comprising the so-called

"famous class of '53."

According to White, he was deeply influenced in his

academic career and life by Professor

(later, Yale's president),

who personally instructed him in rhetoric and remained a close personal friend

until Porter's death.

He also served as an editor of

The Lit.,

known today as the

He belonged to

, a literary and debating society.

As a

junior, White won the Yale literary prize for the best essay, writing on the

topic "The Greater Distinctions in Statesmanship;" this was a surprise as

traditionally a senior was chosen for the winning essay.

Also as a

junior, White joined the junior society

In his senior year, White

won the Clark Prize for English

and the De Forest prize for public

oratory, speaking on the topic "The Diplomatic History of Modern Times".

Valued at $100, the De Forest prize was then the largest prize of its kind at

any educational institution, American or otherwise.

In addition to

academic pursuits, White was on the Yale

team, and competed in the first

in 1852.

After graduation, White traveled and studied in Europe with his classmate

Daniel Coit Gilman. Between 1853 and 1854, he studied at the

, the

, and the

. He also served as the translator for

, the

, following Gilman's term as translator,

although he had not studied

(

and the Russian royal

court) prior to his studies in Europe.

After he returned the United States, White

enrolled at Yale to earn a

and be inducted into

in 1856.

Career

[

]

Academia

[

]

In October 1858, White accepted a position as a professor of History and English literature at the

, where he remained on faculty until 1863.

White made his lasting mark on the grounds of the university by

enrolling students to plant

along the walkways on

Between 1862 and 1863, he traveled to Europe to

lobby France and Britain to assist the United States in the

or at least not to aid the

Founding of Cornell University

[

]

Further information:

White in 1865, when he and

co-founded

In 1863, White returned to reside in

for business reasons. In November, he

was elected to the

on the

ticket.

In the

Senate, White met the fellow

Senator

, a self-taught

farmer from

who had made a modest fortune in the

industry.

Around then, the senators were called on to decide how best to use the higher

education funding provided by the

, which allocated

timberland in the

, which states could sell as they saw fit. Through effective management by Cornell, New York,

generated about $2.5 million (equivalent to $65 million in today dollars

) from its allotted scrip, a greater yield

per acre than any state except perhaps

The senators initially wanted to divvy the funds among the

numerous small state colleges of their districts. White fervently argued that the money would be more effectively used

if it endowed only one university. Ezra Cornell agreed and told 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?" White immediately replied, "The best

thing you can do with it is to establish or strengthen some institution of higher learning."

The two thus combined

their efforts to form a new university.

White pressed for the university to be located on the hill in Syracuse, the current location of

because of the city's transportation hub. That could help attract faculty, students, and other persons of note.

However, as a young carpenter working in Syracuse, Cornell had been robbed of his wages,

and insisted for the

university to be in his hometown of

. He proposed to donate land on his large farm on East Hill, overlooking the

town and

. White convinced Cornell to give his name to the university "in accordance with [the] time-

honored American usage" of naming universities after their largest initial benefactors.

On February 7, 1865, White

introduced a bill "to establish the Cornell University" and, on April 27, 1865, after months of debate, Governor

signed into law the bill endowing Cornell University as the state's

.In 1865, White

also authored "...The Negro's Right to Citizenship - a very detailed legal, ethical and logical argument for

citizenship for the Negro." A staunch abolitionist, White was also the author of "abolition of Slavery the Right of

Government under the War Powers Act" as well as several other legal arguments in favor of the Negro."

White became the school's first president and served as a professor in the

He commissioned

Cornell's first

, to build

on campus.

White was elected a member of the

in 1869

and

1884.

In 1891,

and Jane Stanford asked White to serve as the first president of

, which they had

founded in

. Although he refused, he recommended his former student

Conflict thesis

[

]

Main article:

At the time of Cornell's founding, White announced that it would be "an asylum for

Science

—where truth shall be sought

for truth's sake, not stretched or cut exactly to fit Revealed Religion."

Until then, most of America's private

universities had been founded as religious institutions and generally were focused on the

and religious

training.

In 1869, White gave a lecture on "The Battle-Fields of Science" in which he argued that history showed the negative

outcomes resulting from any attempt on the part of

to interfere with the progress of

. Over the next

30 years, he refined his analysis, expanding his case studies to include nearly every field of science over the entire

history of Christianity but also narrowing his target from "religion" through "ecclesiasticism" to "dogmatic

theology."

The final result was the two-volume

(1896) in which

he asserted the

of science being against

. Initially less popular than

History of the Conflict between Religion and Science

(1874), White's book became an influential text in the

19th century on the

. White's conflict thesis has been widely rejected among

contemporary historians of science.

The warfare depiction remains a popular view among critics of

religion.

Diplomat

[

]

White's official portrait as

, where

he served from 1892 to 1894

While at Cornell, in 1871, he took leave to serve as a Commissioner to

, along with

and

, at the request of President

to determine the feasibility of an American annexation of the

. Their report (

) supported the annexation, but

Grant was unable to gain sufficient political support to take further action.

Later, White was appointed as the American ambassador to Germany (1879–1881). After returning to the United States, he

was elected as the first president of the

(1884–1886). Upstate

nominated him for

in 1876 and for Congress in 1886, but he did not win either primary.

Following his resignation in 1885 as Cornell's president, White served as the minister to Russia (1892–1894),

president of the American delegation to

, and again as ambassador to Germany (1897–

1902).

In 1904, White published his

Autobiography

, which he had written while he was relaxing in Italy after his retirement

from the Department of State with the change in administrations. Cornell's third president,

, was

appointed as ambassador to Germany from 1925 to 1929.

At the onset of

, White supported the German cause within Europe because he had strong professional and

emotional ties to Germany. By the summer of 1915, he retreated from this position and refrained from offering any

support either publicly or privately.

In the fall of 1916, President

appointed White to a peace

commission to prepare a treaty with China.

As of December 1916, White had reduced some of his obligations,

resigning from the

and the trustees of the

Bibliophile

[

]

The A. D. White Reading Room at

, named

in White's honor

Over the course of his career, White

. His library

included an extensive section on

, which then represented the largest

architecture library in the United States. He donated all 4,000 books to the

for the purpose of teaching architecture as well as the

remainder of his 30,000-book collection.

In 1879, White enlisted

, a former undergraduate assistant for

one of his seminars, to manage the rare books collection. Though Burr would later

hold other positions at the university, such as Professor of History, he remained

White's collaborator and head of this collection until 1922 by traveling over

Europe, locating and amassing books that White wanted. In particular, he built the

collections on the

, and the

Today,

White's collection is housed primarily in the Cornell Archives and in the Andrew Dickson White Reading Room (formally

known as the "President White Library of History and Political Science") at Uris Library on the Ithaca Campus. The

A.D. White Reading Room was designed by

, who had also designed White's mansion on campus.

While serving in

, White made the acquaintance of author

. Tolstoy's fascination with

sparked a similar interest in White, who had previously regarded the Latter-Day Saints (LDS) as a dangerous

. Upon

his return to the United States, White took advantage of Cornell's proximity to the religion's birthplace in

to amass a collection of LDS memorabilia (including many original copies of the

); it is unmatched by

any other institution outside the church itself and its flagship

Personal life

[

]

White married twice. His first marriage, on September 27, 1857, was to Mary Amanda Outwater (February 10, 1836 – June

8, 1887), daughter of Peter Outwater and Lucia M. Phillips of Syracuse. Mary's maternal grandmother Amanda Danforth,

daughter of Asa Danforth Jr. and wife of Elijah Phillips Jr., was the first white child born in what would become

. Her great-grandfathers included General Asa Danforth, an early pioneer of upstate New York

and leader of the

, as well as Elijah Philips Sr., who had responded to the alarm to

, in 1775 and later served as the High Sheriff of Onondaga County.

Andrew and Mary had three children together: Frederick Davies White, who committed

in his forties in 1901

after a prolonged series of illnesses; Clara (White) Newbury, who died before her father; and Ruth (White) Ferry. After

his wife died in 1887,

White went on a lecture tour and traveled in Europe with his close friend,

, librarian at Cornell.

After three years as a widower, in 1890, White married

, the daughter of Edward Magill,

's second president. She was the first woman in the United States to earn a Ph.D.

Like her husband, Helen

was a social scientist and educator; the two met at a conference where she was presenting a paper. Together, Helen and

Andrew had three children.

Death and legacy

[

]

White is interred in

, where his

features crests of

nations where he served as an

ambassador and icons of

universities where he studied

On October 26, 1918, White suffered a slight paralytic stroke following a severe

illness of several days.

On the morning of Monday, November 4, White died at

home in Ithaca.

Three days later, on November 7, on what would have been White's

86th birthday, White was interred at

on the Cornell campus. The chapel

was filled to capacity by faculty, trustees, and other well-wishers.

White's body resides in a sarcophagus in the Memorial Room with those of other

persons deemed influential in the founding and early years of the university,

including co-founder

and benefactor

His marble

was designed in the

popular

style. It features crests of countries and institutions that played important roles in White's

life.

For example, the adjacent picture shows the crests of the two countries where White was an ambassador; the

is on left and

, a variation on the

, representing

Russia, is on the right.

The sarcophagus was completed in 1926 by sculptor

(1877–1963), who also created sculptures adorning

Myron Taylor Hall at Cornell. Lawrie is perhaps best known for his

statue at

in New York

City.

In his will, White left $500,000 ($10.7 million in

2025

) to Cornell University, in addition to the considerable sums

donated to the institution earlier in his life.

Cornell University

[

]

In his 1904 autobiography,

The Autobiography of Andrew Dickson White

, White wrote:

During my life, which is now extending beyond the allotted span of threescore and ten, I have been engaged

after the manner of my countrymen, in many sorts of work, have become interested in many conditions of men

have joined in many efforts which I hope have been of use; but, most of all, I have been interested in the

founding and maintaining of Cornell University, and by the part, I have taken in that, more than by any other

work of my life I hope to be judged.

— Andrew Dickson White,

The Autobiography of Andrew Dickson White

(1904)

Until at least the mid-20th century, Cornell undergraduates with the surname 'White' were traditionally given the

nickname 'Andy' in reference to White. Notably,

, author of the world-famous children's book

, continued to go by the nickname 'Andy' for the rest of his life after his undergraduate years at Cornell.

Legacy and honors

[

]

Historian Benjamin G, Rader argues that in creating Cornell:

White championed nondenominationalism, coeducation, an elective curriculum, and academic freedom. These

positions won him a lasting reputation as a pioneer in the history of higher education.

According to professor

, White confronted a series of complex challenges in his long career:

Above all, the creation from scratch of a large, high-quality, coeducational, nonsectarian public university

in the cockpit of post-Civil War, educational politics was an organizational chore of awesome subtlety for man

of White's genteel background and soaring ideals."

Degrees received by Andrew Dickson White

Earned degrees

- A.B. (1853)

- M.A. History (1856)

White was awarded numerous honorary degrees, including:

(1867)

, LL.D. (1886)

, LL.D. (1887)

(1887)

(1889)

, LL.D. (October 1902)

, LL.D. (1902)

in connection with the

tercentenary (October 1902)

, LL.D. (1906)

Gallery

[

]

1878

1881

1882 - Seated right

of center with the

Cornell faculty

1885 - Seen sitting

on the far right

with the founding

members of the

1896 - Featured in

In Berlin, 1900

C.1905 - Gelatin

silver photograph

of White

An undated signature

of White

c. about 1905 -

Gelatin silver print

cabinet card photo

and undated

signature of Andrew

D. White. Possible

original photo that

was used in the

original

Autobiography of

Andrew Dickson

White

book

1906 - White and

the opening of

Goldwin Smith Hall.

A statue of White

was later installed

in front of the

building.

An autographed copy

Autobiography of

Andrew D. White

Volume 1

, dated

June 23, 1916

White, 1910

1915 - Featured in

An undated

photograph of

White, published

c.1918 in the

Cornell Alumni

Magazine

after his

death

c. about 1915 -

Standing near his

statue on the

Cornell campus

The statue of White

on the Cornell

Ancestry

[

]

Ancestors of Andrew Dickson White

Asa White

Horace White

Andrew White

1832-1918

Clara Dickson

Selected bibliography

[

]

For a more comprehensive list, see

Outlines of a Course of Lectures on History

(1861).

Syllabus of Lectures on Modern History

(1876).

. New York: D. Appleton and Company.

1896

. Retrieved

May 18,

2024

– via

A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom

, 2 vols. (1896), online at

Gutenberg

Seven Great Statesmen in the Warfare of Humanity with Unreason

(1910).

The Autobiography of Andrew Dickson White

(1911), online at

Autobiography of Andrew Dickson White

: How It Came, What It Brought, and How It Ended

(PDF)

(3rd ed.). New York: D. Appleton and Company. 1933 – via mises.org.