Editing Charles William Eliot (section)

== Legacy ==
Under Eliot, Harvard became a worldwide university, accepting its students around America using standardized [[entrance examination]]s and hiring well-known scholars from home and abroad. Eliot was an administrative reformer, reorganizing the [[university]]'s [[Faculty (teaching staff)|faculty]] into schools and departments and replacing recitations with [[lectures]] and [[seminars]]. During his forty-year presidency, the university vastly expanded its facilities, with laboratories, libraries, classrooms, and athletic facilities replacing simple colonial structures. Eliot attracted the support of major donors from among the nation's growing [[plutocracy]], making it the wealthiest private university in the world.

Eliot's leadership made Harvard not only the pace-setter for other American schools, but a major figure in the reform of [[secondary school]] education. Both the elite [[boarding schools]], most of them founded during his presidency, and the public [[high schools]] shaped their [[curricula]] to meet Harvard's demanding standards. Eliot was a key figure in the creation of standardized admissions examinations, as a founding member of the [[College Entrance Examination Board]].

As leader of the nation's wealthiest and best-known university, Eliot was necessarily a celebrated figure whose opinions were sought on a wide variety of matters, from [[tax]] policy (he offered the first coherent rationale for the charitable [[tax exemption]]) to the intellectual welfare of the general public.

President Eliot edited the ''[[Harvard Classics]]'', which together are colloquially known as his Five Foot Shelf<ref>[http://www.bartleby.com/hc/ Five Foot Shelf]</ref> and which were intended at the time to suggest a foundation for informed discourse, "A good substitute for a liberal education in youth to anyone who would read them with devotion, even if he could spare but fifteen minutes a day for reading."<ref>{{ cite web | url = http://www.openculture.com/2014/03/the-harvard-classics-download-all-51-volumes-as-free-ebooks.html | title = open culture }}</ref>

Eliot was an articulate opponent of [[American imperialism]].

During his tenure as Harvard's president he denied women's demands to be allowed the same educational opportunities as men. In response to these demands he was quoted as saying "the world “(knows) next to nothing about the natural mental capacities of the female sex.”" Regardless of Eliot's opposition, women were able to find educational instruction through the [[Radcliffe College#Early history|Harvard Annex]] where they could receive instruction from Harvard faculty. Within a decade this program grew to 200 female students, and resulted in the creation of [[Radcliffe College]]. In the aftermath of the formation of the college, Eliot, with reservations, countersigned the degrees of women who attend Radcliffe certifying the degrees received by these students are equivalent in everyway to those received by students at Harvard. He still maintained that there must be a separation of the sexes when it came to education.<ref>{{cite web |title=About The Institute: History: Radcliffe: From College to Institute |url=https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/about-the-institute/history |website=[[Harvard Radcliffe Institute]] |publisher=President and Fellows of Harvard College |access-date=12 April 2023}}</ref><ref name="Charles Eliot">{{cite web |title=Charles Eliot |url=https://eliot.harvard.edu/about-charles-eliot |website=[[Eliot House]] |publisher=The President and Fellows of Harvard College |access-date=12 April 2023}}</ref>

While Eliot was president of Harvard many firsts happened when it came to the education of [[African Americans]]. Richard Theodore Greener was the first African American to graduate from Harvard. [[W.E.B. Du Bois]] was the first African American to earn a PhD from Harvard's [[History]] Department, and from Harvard overall. Also, during his presidency, Eliot saw the hiring of Harvard's first African American faculty member George F. Grant. Yet, despite these changes Eliot continued to believe in [[racial segregation]], [[Anti-miscegenation laws|anti-miscegenation]], and [[eugenics]].<ref name="Charles Eliot"/>

Unlike his successor, [[A. Lawrence Lowell]], Eliot opposed efforts to limit the admission of [[Jews]] and [[Roman Catholics]].<ref>Marsha Graham Synnott, ''The Half-Opened Door: Discrimination and Admissions at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, 1900-1970'', Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1979.</ref><ref>Eliot, Charles William, 1834-1926. ''Papers of Charles William Eliot.'' [http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~hua03006 inventory] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100711155517/http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~hua03006 |date=July 11, 2010 }} General Correspondence Group 3, 1921-1925, bulk 1921-1923, Box 77, [[Harvard University Library]].</ref> At the same time, Eliot was radically opposed to labor unions, fostering a campus climate where many Harvard students served as strikebreakers; he was called by some "the greatest labor union hater in the country."<ref>Stephen H. Norwood, [https://archive.today/20120709162831/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2005/is_n2_v28/ai_16351005/ "The Student as Strikebreaker: College Youth and the Crisis of Masculinity in the Early 20th Century"], ''Journal of Social History'', Winter 1994.</ref>

Charles Eliot was a fearless crusader not only for [[educational reform]], but for many of the goals of the [[progressive movement]]—whose most prominent figurehead was [[Theodore Roosevelt]] (Class of 1880) and most eloquent spokesman was [[Herbert Croly]] (Class of 1889).

Eliot was also involved in philanthropy. In 1908 he joined the [[General Education Board]], and in 1913 served on the [[International Health Board]], as well as serving as a trustee of the [[Rockefeller Foundation]] from 1914 to 1917. Eliot helped found the Institute for Government Research ([[Brookings Institution]]) and served as trustee. He acted as a founding trustee of the [[Carnegie Endowment for International Peace]] from its beginning in 1910 until 1919. Eliot was an incorporator of the [[Boston Museum of Fine Arts]] in 1870, and a trustee. Between 1908 and 1925 he served as the chairman of the Museum's Special Advisory Committee on Education. Served as vice president for the National Committee for Mental Hygiene from 1913 till his death.<ref>{{ cite web | url = https://mhanational.org/our-history | title = Mental Health America }}</ref> Eliot accepted election to be the first president of the [[American Social Hygiene Association]]. In 1902, he became vice president of the [[National Civil Service Reform League]], and president of the league in 1908.<ref>{{cite book |title= Charles W. Eliot, president of Harvard University, 1869-1909, Volume II|last1=James |first1= Henry|year= 1930|publisher= AMS Press|pages= 185–188}}</ref>

In celebration of President Eliot's 90th birthday, congratulations came in across the world and notably from two American Presidents.  Woodrow Wilson said of him, “No man has ever made a deeper impression of the educational system of a country than President Eliot has upon the educational system of America,” while Theodore Roosevelt exclaimed, “He is the only man in the world I envy.”<ref name="Harvard Square Library"/>

Upon his death in 1926, ''The New York Times'' published a full-page interview that Eliot had given as he neared the end of his life,<ref name=NYT-Int>{{cite news|title=Dr. Eliot: The Man and His work in Review|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1926/08/29/98387721.html?pageNumber=182|access-date=March 21, 2015|work=The New York Times|date=August 29, 1926}}</ref> including excerpts from his writings on education, religion, democracy, labor, woman, and Americanism.<ref name=NYT-Way>{{cite news|title=Dr. Eliot Pointed Way to Right Living: Some of His Views on Education, Religion and Democracy|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1926/08/29/98387721.html?pageNumber=182|access-date=March 21, 2015|work=The New York Times|date=August 29, 1926}}</ref>

Former [[President of Harvard University|Harvard President]], [[Economics]] Professor, and [[United States Secretary of the Treasury|Secretary of Treasury]] [[Lawrence Summers]] now holds the Charles W. Eliot [[Emeritus]] [[List of University Professors at Harvard University|University Professor]] position at Harvard University.<ref>{{cite web |title=University Professorships |url=https://www.harvard.edu/about/university-professorships/ |website=[[Harvard University]] |publisher=The President and Fellows of Harvard College |access-date=12 April 2023}}</ref>

===Inscriptions composed by Charles W. Eliot===
Over one hundred inscriptions were composed by President Eliot, placed on buildings ranging from schools, churches, public buildings, memorial tablets, numerous monuments, and to the Library of Congress.<ref>{{cite book |title= Inscriptions Written by Charles William Eliot |last1= The Presidents and Fellows of Harvard College|year= 1934|publisher= Harvard University Press|pages= 22, 27}}</ref>

<poem>ON THESE HEIGHTS 
DURING THE NIGHT OF MARCH 4 1776,
THE AMERICAN TROOPS BESIEGING BOSTON
BUILT TWO REDOUBTS, 
WHICH MADE THE HARBOR AND TOWN 
UNTENABLE BY THE BRITISH FLEET AND GARRISON.
ON MARCH 17 THE BRITISH FLEET
CARRYING 11000 EFFECTIVE MEN
AND 1000 REFUGES,
DROPPED DOWN TO NANTASKET ROADS
AND THENCEFORTH
BOSTON WAS FREE,
A STRONG BRITISH FORCE
HAD BEEN EXPELLED 
FROM ONE OF THE UNITED AMERICAN COLONIES</poem>
(Evacuation Monument - [[Dorchester Heights]] Monument, Boston, Massachusetts, 1902)

<poem>TO THE MEN OF BOSTON
WHO DIED FOR THEIR COUNTRY
ON LAND AND SEA IN THE WAR
WHICH KEPT THE UNION WHOLE,
DESTROYED SLAVERY AND MAINTAINED THE CONSTITUTION.
THE GRATEFUL CITY
HAS BUILT THIS MONUMENT,
THAT THEIR EXAMPLE MAY SPEAK 
TO COMING GENERATIONS</poem>
([[Soldiers and Sailors Monument (Boston)]], Boston Common, Massachusetts, 1877)

===Monuments and memorials===
[[File:Eliot Mountain Plaque.jpg|thumb|Eliot Mountain Memorial Plaque]]
[[Eliot House]], one of the seven original residential houses for undergraduates at the college, was named in honor of Eliot and opened in 1931.<ref name="Eliot House">{{cite web |url=http://www.eliot.harvard.edu/eliot/facilities |title=Eliot House — History of Eliot House |publisher=eliot.harvard.edu |access-date=January 25, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120101200214/http://www.eliot.harvard.edu/eliot/facilities |archive-date=January 1, 2012 }}</ref> [[Charles W. Eliot Middle School]] in [[Altadena, California]], [[Eliot Elementary School]] in [[Tulsa, Oklahoma]], Charles William Eliot Junior High School (now Eliot-Hine Middle School) in [[Washington, DC]] were named in his honor. In 1940 the [[United States Postal Service]] issued a stamp in Eliot's honor as part of their [[Postage stamps and postal history of the United States#Famous Americans Series of 1940|Famous Americans Issue]].<ref>{{cite book |title= America's Stamps|url= https://archive.org/details/americasstampsst2014pete|url-access= limited|last1=Petersham |first1= Maud|last2=Petersham |first2= Miska|year= 1947|publisher= The Macmillan Company|location= New York|page= [https://archive.org/details/americasstampsst2014pete/page/106 106]}}</ref> Asteroid [[(5202) 1983 XX|(5202) Charleseliot]] is named in his honor. 
<ref>http://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/ECS/MPCArchive/2015/MPC_20150702.pdf {{Bare URL PDF|date=March 2022}}</ref> Eliot Mountain was named in honor of the lifelong academic who summered on [[Mount Desert Island, Maine]], and was a key figure in the creation of [[Acadia National Park]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/maine/eliot-mountain-trail | title = Eliot Mountain}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.nps.gov/people/charles-w-eliot.htm | title = National Park Service}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title= Tragedies and Triumphs: Charles W. Eliot, George B. Dorr, and John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and the Founding of Acadia National Park |last1=Goldstein |first1= Judith |year= 1992|publisher= Port in A Storm Bookstore |location= Somesville, Maine}}</ref>

===Honors and degrees===
*1857 Fellow [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]]  
*1869 LL.D. Williams College; LL.D. Princeton University 
*1870 LL.D. Yale University                                                       
*1871 Member American Philosophical Society 
*1873 Member Massachusetts Historical Society
*1879 [[American Library Association Honorary Membership]]. <ref>American Library Association. [http://www.ala.org/awardsgrants/awards/176/all_years Honorary Membership.]</ref>
*1902 LL.D. Johns Hopkins University  
*1903 Officer [[Legion of Honor]] ( France)
*1904 Corresponding Member Academy Moral and Political Science, Institute of France
*1908 Grand Officer [[Order of the Crown of Italy]]
*1909 Imperial [[Order of the Rising Sun]], 1st class; Royal [[Order of Merit of the Prussian Crown]], 1st class; Fellow [[Royal Society of Literature]] (England); LL.D. Tulane University; LL.D. University of Missouri; LL.D. Dartmouth College; LL.D. Harvard University; MD. (hon.) Harvard University
*1911 Ph.D. (hon.) University of Breslau
*1914 [[Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy]]; LL.D. Brown University
*1915 Gold Medal / [[American Academy of Arts and Letters]]<ref>{{cite web | url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1915/11/21/104234036.pdf | work=The New York Times|title = Gold Medal for Dr. Eliot}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1916/01/28/100187381.pdf | work=The New York Times|title = American Academy Honors Educator's Work for Literature}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://artsandletters.org/?s=charles+w+eliot&restype=all | title = American Academy of Arts and Letters }}</ref>
*1919 [[Order of the Crown of Belgium]]
*1923 Grand Cordon of the [[Order of St. Sava]], Serbia; LL.D. Boston University; Civic Forum Medal of Honor, New York
*1924 Roosevelt Medal for Distinguished Service; [[Commander of the Legion of Honor]] (France); LL.D. University of the State of New York<ref>{{cite book| title=Charles W. Eliot, President of Harvard University 1869-1909 | url=https://archive.org/details/charlesweliotpre0000jame | url-access=registration | author=Henry James | author-link=Henry James | year=1930 | page= Appendix G}}</ref>

===Books===
*''Educational Reform: Essays and Addresses'' (1901)
*''The Conflict between Individualism and Collectivism in a Democracy'' (1910)
*''The Training for an Effective Life'' (1915)