James Clarke Welling

James Clarke Welling (July 14, 1825 – September 4, 1894) was the President of Columbian University, now the George Washington University, Washington, DC, from 1871 to 1894.^[1] He was a cofounder of the National Geographic Society.^[2]

James Clarke Welling
Born	(1825-07-14)July 14, 1825 Trenton, New Jersey
Died	September 4, 1894(1894-09-04) (aged 69) Hartford, Connecticut
Alma mater	Princeton University, 1844
Known for	President of Columbian University, now the George Washington University and cofounder of the National Geographic Society
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Biography

James Clarke Welling was born in Trenton, New Jersey on July 14, 1825. He graduated from Princeton University in 1844.^[3] During the Civil War, he wrote for the National Intelligencer.^[4] Welling was a professor at Princeton when in 1871 he accepted the presidency of Columbian College.^[5] He became the sixth president of the university.

He was one of the ten founders of the Cosmos Club in 1878.^[6] In 1884, he served as president of the Philosophical Society of Washington.^[7]

"The last occasion in which he appeared in public was at the laying of the new cornerstone of the Corcoran Gallery of Art."^[8] Welling died at his summer residence in Hartford, Connecticut on September 4, 1894.^[9]