Moses Coit Tyler

Moses Coit Tyler (August 2, 1835 – December 28, 1900) was an American author and the first full university professor of American history.

Biography Born in Griswold, Connecticut, Tyler and his family moved several times during his childhood, first to Constantia, New York, and then to various locations in Michigan before settling in Detroit in 1842. There, he attended the First Congregational Church. In 1850, at age 15, he became a schoolteacher in Romeo, Michigan. The next year he became a bookseller in Chicago. meeting. This became a lifelong personal and professional friendship.

Tyler studied for the Congregational ministry at the Yale Divinity School (1857–1858) and Andover Theological Seminary (1858–1859). His first pastorate was at a Congregationalist church in Owego, New York (1859–1860), before moving to a larger congregation in Poughkeepsie in 1861. except for a brief period when he was literary editor of The Christian Union (1873–1874). His disgust with the Beecher-Tilton Scandal case sent him back to Michigan. He was elected to the American Antiquarian Society in 1879.

For much of the 1870s, Andrew Dickson White had been promoting the study of American history at Cornell University, having hired George Washington Greene, William C. Russell, Hermann E. Von Holst, and John Fiske in various roles as visiting professors and lecturers. In 1881, White secured funding for a permanent professorship and hired his old college friend Tyler, who turned down an offer from Columbia University, at double the salary. From 1881 until his death, Tyler served as professor of American history and chairman of the Department of History. This was the first full professorship of American history. Selections were published by his daughter in 1911.

Personal life In 1862, at the request of his cousin, Dr. Daniel T. Coit of Boston, he adopted the name "Coit" as his middle name.

He married Jeannette Gilbert of New Haven, and had three children: Jessica, Edward, and Ned. He spent many professional years and holidays away from them.