Besides being a University of Virginia graduate, Richmond lawyer, historian and genealogist, he was the 14th of U.S. president John Tyler’s 16 children. Tyler’s most important achievement, however, was the resuscitation of the College of William and Mary following the Civil War. The school had been dormant nearly seven years due to war damage and low funding when Tyler, elected to the House of Delegates in 1887, began to lobby on its behalf. He procured $10,000 for the restoration of the school, and it re-opened in 1889 with Tyler at the helm teaching American history and political economy. At Virginia’s Constitutional Convention of 1901, he secured more permanent funding, establishing the college as a state-owned institution. Under his presidency, which lasted through 1919, the College educated many men who went on to assume prominent positions in the new school systems. Tyler also helped welcome the school’s first women students in 1915.
Further Reading:
Dan Monroe, “Lincoln the Dwarf: Lyon Gardiner Tyler’s War on the Mythical Lincoln.” Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association (Winter 2003)
This Vignette Provided By
Encyclopedia Virginia - Kelly Chroninger, graduate student, University of Virginia
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