Ticknor, George b.August I, 1791; Boston, Massachusetts d.Janary 26, 1871; Boston, Massachusetts
First professor of Spanish and French language and literature at Harvard University from 1819 to 1835, Ticknor was one of the first Americans to undertake graduate study at a German university and sought to introduce some elements of German education to Harvard.
After graduating from Dartmouth, Ticknor prepared for a legal career in Boston. However, he found literature more fulfilling, and devoted much time to Boston’s Anthology Society. In 1814, after a year of legal practice, Ticknor decided to make literature his career, and began to prepare himself for study in Germany. He later recalled that he was particularly inspired by Charles Viller’s description of the University of Gottingen as the finest university in Europe. In the fall of 1814 Ticknor learned German. The next year he set out for Germany, along with Edward Everett, George Bancroft, and Joseph Cogswell.Ticknor arrived at Gottingen in August 1815. The most striking feature of the university was its library, which held 200,000 volumes, dwarfing Harvard or any other library in the United States. Ticknor considered the library one of the most important parts of any university and believed that scholars could be produced only with an adequate library supported by museums and laboratories. He was also impressed by the method of instruction; private tutorials supplemented by lectures. Ticknor believed this system made the best use of both the professor’s and the student’s time. Ticknor saw that the professors at Gottingen constituted an intellectual community unlike any in the United States. Yet the system could not simply be copied. In Germany, the Gymnasium prepared students for university studies. No similar system existed in the United States. To Ticknor, German universities had significant drawbacks as well as advantages. The faculty was cut off from the rest of society and played no public role.
Ticknor admired his professors as scholars, but found their private conduct immoral. He found the students largely ill-mannered. Freedom of inquiry, Ticknor believed, contributed to the spread of religious skepticism and outright unbelief.Ticknor did not confine his studies to Gottingen’s library. He and Everett actively sought out intellectual celebrities, particularly Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Ticknor and Everett also joined Gottingen’s only literary society. Ticknor left Gottingen in the spring of 1817. Together with Everett, Ticknor embarked on a trip through Leipzig, Dresden, Jena, Weimar, Halle, and Berlin. During his stay in Dresden, Ticknor was introduced to the royal family, visited Dresden’s famous art gallery, and spent ample time in the famous Royal Public Library. He rounded out his education in France, Italy, and Spain before assuming his duties at Harvard College in August 1819.
Beginning in 1821, Ticknor advocated reforms at Harvard that would reorganize the institution along German lines. The student revolt of 1823 convinced President John Kirkland that some sort of change was necessary, and gave Ticknor his opportunity. On July 23, 1823, a group of overseers of the Harvard Corporation and tutors from the college (but no other faculty) met with Ticknor at his home to discuss a course of reform. Ticknor proposed two major reorganizations. First, the students should be grouped by ability. Second, traditional classes should be abolished and the college should be organized by departments. As at Gottingen, students could advance at their own pace through examination, rather than as a group by recitation. Justice Joseph Story, Ticknor’s best ally among the overseers, issued a report endorsing Ticknor’s proposed changes on May 4, 1824. Final approval was delayed until January 6, 1825, owing to a dispute over whether the overseers or the faculty should control the college. The corporation issued 153 new rules in June 1825.
Rule 61 was at the heart of Ticknor’s agenda. It retained division by freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior classes, but then grouped students by ability. Ticknor saw Rule 61 as at best a partial victory, but realistically the only victory that could be obtained. Faculty resentment and student resistance blocked the reforms. Only Tic- knor’s Department of Modern Languages fully implemented the new rules.Ticknor left Harvard in 1835 and divided the rest of his life between his home in Boston and travels in Europe. Ticknor visited Germany again in 1835 and 1836, making a pilgrimage to Goethe’s home and meeting with the leading intellectuals, including Alexander von Humboldt. The most important acquaintance for Ticknor, however, was Johann, king of Saxony, who repeatedly invited Ticknor during his stay in Dresden to his residential quarters to converse with him on literary matters or to discuss various subjects of common interest. This was the beginning of an acquaintance that ripened into friendship and produced frequent correspondence that lasted until Ticknor’s death in 1871. Ticknor returned to Germany in 1856 to purchase books for the newly formed Boston Public Library. He envisioned a library on the scale of those in Germany and throughout Europe. A gift of $50,000 from Boston-born banker Joshua Bates made Ticknor’s mission possible. Ticknor set up an agency in Leipzig and personally bought 2,000 books in Brussels and Berlin.
Robert W Smith
See also American Students at German Universities; Bancroft, George; Everett, Edward; Gottingen, University of; Humboldt, Alexander von; Johann, King of Saxony
References and Further Reading
Adams, Henry M. Prussian-American Relations 1775-1871. Cleveland, OH: Case Western Reserve University, 1960.
Hilliard, George S., ed. Life, Letters and Journals of George Ticknor. 2 vols. Boston: Joseph Osgood, 1876.
Morison, Samuel Eliot. Three Centuries of Harvard. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 1936.
Tyack, David B. George Ticknor and the Boston Brahmins. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 1967.