author
Henry Philip Tappan
1805–1881
A philosopher, minister, and college leader, he helped imagine the modern American university long before it became common. As the first president of the University of Michigan, he pushed for broader study, serious research, and a bigger vision of public higher education.
1 Audiobook
A Review of Edwards's "Inquiry into the Freedom of the Will"
by Henry Philip Tappan
About the author
Born in Rhinebeck, New York, in 1805, Henry Philip Tappan studied at Union College and Auburn Theological Seminary before building a career as a minister, professor, and writer on philosophy, religion, and education. His work ranged widely, but he became especially known for arguing that universities should do more than drill students in a narrow classical course.
In 1852 he became the first president of the newly reorganized University of Michigan. There he championed a model influenced in part by German universities, encouraging stronger faculty scholarship, a broader curriculum, and a more ambitious idea of what a public university could be. Later accounts of Michigan's history often credit him with helping set the institution on a path toward national importance.
Tappan left Michigan in 1863 after a conflict with the university's governing board, and he spent his later years in Europe. He died in Vevey, Switzerland, in 1881. Though less widely read today than some of his contemporaries, he remains an important early voice in the history of American higher education.