{"id":53,"date":"2020-04-15T18:23:37","date_gmt":"2020-04-15T18:23:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digitalexhibits.syr.edu\/chancellors\/?page_id=53"},"modified":"2021-02-10T17:29:24","modified_gmt":"2021-02-10T17:29:24","slug":"alexander-winchell","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/digitalexhibits.syr.edu\/chancellors\/alexander-winchell\/","title":{"rendered":"Alexander Winchell"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Alexander Winchell<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Term of Office:<\/strong> January 1873 – June 1874 \n
Inauguration Date:<\/strong> 13 February 1873<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alexander Winchell was elected the first Chancellor by Syracuse University\u2019s Board of Trustees in August 1872. Prior to his appointment, Winchell earned a reputation as a respected professor of the natural sciences. It was noted during his inauguration that the appointment of a layman and a scientist to the highest office of a Methodist university honored \u201cthe advancing sentiment of the age which [put] the laity side by side with the ministry.\u201d Winchell\u2019s administration saw early success with increasing the support of local capitalists through subscription to the University\u2019s endowment. The College of Medicine and College of Fine Arts were established under his stewardship, and the Hall of Languages was completed and occupied. Not long into his tenure, however, the Panic of 1873 impacted the University\u2019s finances. These difficulties, combined with delays in the payment of Winchell\u2019s salary, led to his resignation in June 1874. He stayed on as a professor of botany, geology, and zoology until departing for the University of Michigan in 1879. During the mid to late 1870s, Winchell wrote a series of lectures and published works that espoused his eugenicist view of human evolution, most notably Adamites and Preadamites (1877-1880). Additional information about Winchell is available in the Archives\u2019 Alexander Winchell Papers<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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