Turner, Frederick Jackson, 1861-1932

Frederick Jackson Turner, professor and historian, became a leading scholar after he published, in 1893, "The Significance of the Frontier in American History," his revolutionary thesis that American society owed its distincitve characteristics to experience with an undeveloped frontier. He was born on November 14, 1861 in Portage, Wisconsin, the son of Andrew Jackson Turner, a journalist and politician. His scholary work was first carried on at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where he taught from 1891 to 1910 as well as Johns Hopkins University. In later years he joined Harvard, retiring from there in 1924 and spending his last years as a research associate at the Huntington Library. Turner, president of the American Historical Association in 1909-1910, is also remembered for his work on the significance of sectionalism in American history. Turner married Caroline Mae Sherwood of Chicago in 1889; they had three children, two died in childhood. Turner's daughter, Dorothy Kinsley Main, was the mother of historian Jackson Turner Main, who like his grandfather studied at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Frederick Jackson Turner died in Pasadena, California on March 14, 1932

From the description of Letters of Frederick Jackson Turner, 1923. (Huntington Library, Art Collections & Botanical Gardens). WorldCat record id: 733953599

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