Elmer H. Capen
President, 1875 - 1905
“We must be progressive and aggressive if we expect Tufts College to maintain the rank it has gained among New England institutions.”
– Elmer Capen as quoted in Light on the hill: A history of Tufts College, 1852-1952, 143
Elmer H. Capen rose to the Tufts presidency through his work as an active and engaged alumnus and with the support of students, faculty, and alumni, who petitioned for his appointment in 1875. Capen became Tufts longest tenured president, leading the community he had joined as a freshman in 1856 for nearly thirty years.
Inaugurated on June 2, 1875, the subject of Capen's inaugural speech was “The American University,” in which he identified a separate library, gymnasium, chapel, and science building as top priorities. He soon set out to find willing benefactors, including reaching out to Tufts Trustee P. T. Barnum, who funded the construction of the Barnum Museum of Natural History and later donated Jumbo to the College in 1889. Capen’s administration also saw the beginning of co-education in 1892. Of this capable instructor and administrator, the Class of 1897 wrote:
The period of President Capen's administration has been one of marked growth for Tufts. He is a man of progressive ideas and great common sense in applying them. He is thoroughly in touch with all student interests, and the celebration of an athletic victory would be incomplete indeed without a word of congratulation and encouragement from his lips. Never forgetful of his own youth, his sympathy with student fun and his charity for innocent escapades are as marked as his quick censure of any act beneath the dignity of a gentleman, and his firm sense of justice in all matters connected with his administrative work.
His sudden death in 1905 stunned the community. The Tufts Weekly wrote:
How much the man had entered into the lives of his students by the simple meeting with them in Chapel, day by day, was not realized until his presence was denied them, and then, when they might listen no more to his dignified and impressive voice in psalm, in Scripture, and in prayer, the loss was all too fully appreciated.
