Cornelius Conway Felton

Who was Cornelius Conway Felton?

Cornelius Conway Felton was an American educator. He was regent of the Smithsonian Institution, as well as professor of Greek literature and president of Harvard University.

Felton was born in West Newbury, Massachusetts. He graduated at Harvard College in 1827, having taught school in the winter vacations of his sophomore and junior years. During his undergraduate years, he was also a member of the Hasty Pudding. After teaching in the Livingstone High School of Geneseo, New York, for two years, he became tutor at Harvard in 1829, university professor of Greek in 1832, and Eliot professor of Greek literature in 1834. In 1860 he succeeded James Walker as president of Harvard, which position he held until his death, at Chester, Pennsylvania.

Dr Felton edited many classical texts. His annotations on Wolf's text of the Iliad are especially valuable. Greece, Ancient and Modern, forty-nine lectures before the Lowell Institute, is scholarly, able and suggestive of the author's personality.