Josiah Quincy

Born in Boston on February 4, 1772, Josiah Quincy III grew up in the long shadow of the American Revolution and became one of Massachusetts’s most visible public figures. He studied at Phillips Academy and graduated from Harvard in 1790, then trained as a lawyer before entering politics.

Quincy served in the Massachusetts senate and then in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1805 to 1813, where he became known as a prominent Federalist and an outspoken critic during the War of 1812 era. He later served as mayor of Boston from 1823 to 1828, a period associated with energetic city improvement, and Quincy Market would eventually bear his name.

In 1829 he became president of Harvard University, serving until 1845. His long life, which ended on July 1, 1864, connected the Revolutionary generation to the Civil War age, and he is remembered both as a forceful political voice and as an important figure in the civic and educational history of Boston.