Livingston Farrand

Livingston Farrand (June 14, 1867 – November 8, 1939) was an American physician, anthropologist, psychologist, public health advocate and academic administrator. He was president of Cornell University and the University of Colorado.

Early life and education Born in Newark, New Jersey, to Dr. Samuel Ashbel Farrand, headmaster of the historic Newark Academy, and Rachel Louise (Wilson) Farrand, Farrand received an undergraduate degree from Princeton in 1888, and went on to the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, where he earned his M.D. in 1891.

He attended the Universities of Cambridge and Berlin, studying physiological psychology.

Academia After graduating in 1893, he went on to serve as adjunct professor of psychology at Columbia. Due to the influence of Franz Boas - who had joined Columbia in 1896 - Farrand became more involved in anthropology. He joined Boas on expeditions to the Pacific Northwest (notably, the Jesup North Pacific Expedition) and became a full professor of anthropology at Columbia in 1903. He remained at Columbia until 1914. It focused on Native Americans and was part of the multi-volume The American Nation series (28 volumes, 1903–1918) edited by Albert Bushnell Hart. It has been seen as a recognition of Farrand's expertise in anthropology. The organisation's cooperation between medical professionals and laymen was hailed as pioneering and stimulating similar collaborations in other areas of public health. From 1912 to 1914, he was treasurer of the American Public Health Association, during the same period editing the American Journal of Public Health.

In 1929, he declined to intervene on behalf of two students who had been denied residency in the women's dormitories at Sage Hall on the basis of their race. In reply to a letter from the mother of one of these women, he wrote, "... while I have great sympathy for your feeling, I cannot order a change in the procedure of the Dean of Women, under whose jurisdiction the matter falls".

Family Livingston was the brother of Max Farrand, Professor of History at Stanford University and Yale University. Max's wife was landscape architect Beatrix Farrand.

Honours Farrand was a fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science, and member of the American Psychological Association, American Anthropological Association, the American Climatological Association, the American Philosophical Society, and the American Folklore Society, for whom he served as president in 1903.

For his services in the building up of an effective anti-tuberculosis organization at the end of World War One, the French government made Farrand both an officer of the Legion of Honor and a Commander of the Legion of Honour.