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 &lsquo;Life of James Monroe&rsquo; (1883); &lsquo;University Problems&rsquo; (1898); Introduction to DeTocqueville's &lsquo;Democracy in America&rsquo;; &lsquo;Life of James Dwight Dana,&rsquo; etc.