Angell, James Burrill, 1829-1916

American educator who served as the president of the University of Michigan.

President of the University of Michigan, minister to China and Turkey.

Editor of Providence Journal, 1860-1866.

Educator and diplomat.

James B. Angell was a college president and diplomat. Born in Scituate, Rhode Island on January 7, 1829, Angell was a graduate of Brown University, class of 1849. After a period of travel and study, he joined the faculty of Brown soon after receiving his A.M. in 1853 as professor of modern languages. He resigned in 1860 to assume the editorship of the Providence Journal, a newspaper he had been writing for since 1858. As editor, Angell was especially interested in topics relating to international law and politics.

In 1866, Angell resigned to accept the presidency of the University of Vermont. In 1869, he was offered the presidency of the University of Michigan. After initially refusing the offer, Angell, after more than a year of negotiation with the regents, accepted the offer to come to Ann Arbor on February 7, 1871. He would remain as president until his retirement in 1909.

Because of his expertise in international affairs, Angell was called upon for occasional diplomatic service. He was minister to China from 1880 to 1881 and a member of a commission of three to negotiate a new immigration treaty which limited but did not absolutely prohibit the entry and residence of Chinese laborers into the United States. Angell remained in China until October 1881 and resumed his academic duties in February 1882.

In 1887, President Grover Cleveland selected Angell to serve on the Anglo-American International Commission on Canadian Fisheries. Later in Cleveland's second administration, Angell was named chairman of the Canadian-American Commission on Deep Waterways from Lakes to Sea. Angell's last diplomatic venture was as U.S. Minister to Turkey, serving from 1897 to 1898.

Angell died April 1, 1916.