The

Lowell Institute The Lowell Institute is a United States educational foundation located in Boston, Massachusetts, providing both free public lectures, and also advanced lectures. It was endowed by a bequest of $250,000 left by John Lowell Jr., who died in 1836. T ...

(est. 1836) is an educational foundation in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, providing for free public lectures, and endowed by the bequest of $237,000 left by John Lowell, Jr., who died in 1836.Smith, Harriette (Knight). The History of the Lowell Institute. Boston: Lamson, Wolffe and, 1898. Print. The Institute had an unusual mode of governance: a single trustee who was empowered to appoint his successor and who was, in the language of Lowell's will, "always choose in preference to all others some male descendant of my grandfather, John Lowell, provided there be one who is competent to hold the office of trustee, and of the name of Lowell". Having been extremely successful for more than a century, audiences for Lowell Institute began to wane, and the newly appointed

Trustee Trustee (or the holding of a trusteeship) is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, refers to anyone in a position of trust and so can refer to any individual who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility for the ...

Ralph Lowell Major Ralph Lowell (July 23, 1890 – May 15, 1978) was a World War I veteran, banker, and philanthropist from Boston. Lowell was born in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, to John and Mary Emlen Lowell (Lowell 1899, p 302). Lowell graduated f ...

, in co-operation with

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

President

James B. Conant James Bryant Conant (March 26, 1893 – February 11, 1978) was an American chemist, a transformative President of Harvard University, and the first United States Ambassador to West Germany, U.S. Ambassador to West Germany. Conant obtained a ...

founded the public radio station WGBH Boston in hopes of reaching larger audiences. WGBH Boston evolved under Ralph Lowell's, and Lowell's son John's, direction to become what it is today.

Trustees

# John Lowell, Jr., (1814–1836) #

John Amory Lowell John Amory Lowell (November 11, 1798 – October 31, 1881) was an American businessman and philanthropist from Boston. He became the sole trustee of the Lowell Institute when his first cousin, John Lowell Jr. (1799–1836), the Institute's e ...

, (1836–1881) #

Augustus Lowell Augustus Lowell (January 15, 1830 – June 22, 1900) was a wealthy Massachusetts industrialist, philanthropist, horticulturist, and civic leader. A member of the Brahmin Lowell family, he was born in Boston to John Amory Lowell and his seco ...

, (1881–1900) #

A. Lawrence Lowell Abbott Lawrence Lowell (December 13, 1856 – January 6, 1943) was an American educator and legal scholar. He was president of Harvard University from 1909 to 1933. With an "aristocratic sense of mission and self-certainty," Lowell cut a large f ...

, (1900–1943) #

, (1943–1978) # John Lowell (businessman), (1978–2011) # William A. Lowell (attorney and Practice Group Leader with Choate Hall & Stewart LLP) (2011-)

Portrait gallery

Image:JohnLowellJr.jpg, Image:JohnAmoryLowell.jpg, Image:Abbott Lawrence Lowell.jpg,

References

{{Reflist

External links

WGBH Boston www.wgbh.org

Public lectures page at forum-network.org

''The Historic Genealogy of the Lowells of America from 1639 to 1899''
List of Trustees of Lowell Institute

Trustees

Portrait gallery

See also

References

External links