The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Gilman, Daniel Coit

GILMAN, Daniel Coit, American educator: b. Norwich, Conn., 6 July 1831; d. there, 13 Oct. 1908. He was graduated at Yale College in 1852; was professor of physical and political geography in Yale in 1856-72; and president of the University of California 1872-75. When Johns Hopkins University was founded in Baltimore, Md., in 1875, he was elected its first president and served in that capacity till 1901, when he resigned. In 1896-97 he was a member of the commission to settle the boundary line between Venezuela and British Guiana, and in the latter year also served on the commission to draft a new charter for Baltimore. He was president of the American Oriental Society 1893-1906, and vice-president of the Archæological Institute of America, executive officer of the Maryland Geological Survey and president of the National Civil Service Reform League from 1901 to 1907. He wrote ‘Life of James Monroe’ (1883); ‘University Problems’ (1898); Introduction to DeTocqueville's ‘Democracy in America’; ‘Life of James Dwight Dana,’ etc.