Charles Wesley Emerson
Charles Wesley Emerson (1837 - 1908) was the founder, namesake and first president of Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts. Charles Emerson was also the author of a number of books dealing with oratory and a minister with the Unitarian Church.
Life and career
Charles Wesley Emerson was born in Pittsfield, Vermont in 1837 to Thomas and Mary F. (Hewitt) Emerson, and was a distant cousin of Ralph Waldo Emerson. The Emersons moved to Stockbridge, Vermont in 1845 where his father was a notable teacher. Emerson studied with Prof. Augustus Wing, and began preaching at age nineteen.
Prior to establishing the College, Emerson was a minister who preached in Congregational and Unitarian parishes until 1885.
Emerson studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia receiving an M.D. in 1877, and he conducted courses in elocution, expression, voice culture, art, and topics related to oratory at the Unitarian Church of Vineland, New Jersey.
In 1877, Charles Emerson enrolled in Boston University's School of Oratory where he studied Delsarte and Swedenborg under the direction and guidance of Professor Lewis B. Monroe.
Shortly after the death of Lewis B. Monroe and the closure of the School of Oratory at Boston University, Emerson opened the Boston Conservatory of Elocution, Oratory, and Dramatic Art in 1880. A year later, the name was changed to the Monroe Conservatory of Oratory, in honor of Monroe (now Emerson College).
During his time as president of the Conservatory, Emerson published a number of books including four volumes of The Evolution of Expression which became the core text in the Conservatory's curriculum.
In 1900, Henry and Jessie Eldridge Southwick purchased Emerson College. Emerson retired three years later and William James Rolfe took his place as president of the college.
Emerson believed that the ability to communicate was the key to achieving one's full potential. Emerson was confident that once a student completed his academic program, he would have future success, no matter what endeavor or profession they chose.
Emerson is buried in Prospect Hill Cemetery in Millis, Massachusetts.[1]
Books by Charles Wesley Emerson
- Psycho vox; The Emerson system of voice culture (1897)
- Physical Culture (1891)
- Expressive Physical Culture (1900)
- Evolution of Expression - Volume 1 (1905)
- Evolution of Expression – Volume 1 by Charles Wesley Emerson at Project Gutenberg on Project Gutenberg
Notes
Sources
External links
- Works by Charles Wesley Emerson at Project Gutenberg
- Works by Charles Wesley Emerson at Faded Page (Canada)
- Works by or about Charles Wesley Emerson at the Internet Archive
- Charles Wesley Emerson on Find a Grave
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
- 1837 births
- 1908 deaths
- Boston University alumni
- Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania alumni
- Presidents of Emerson College
- Emerson College faculty
- 19th-century Unitarian clergy
- 20th-century Unitarian clergy
- American physicians
- Burials at Prospect Hill Cemetery (Millis, Massachusetts)
- People associated with physical culture