46 Facts About Eugene Schuyler

Eugene Schuyler was a nineteenth-century American scholar, writer, explorer and diplomat.

Eugene Schuyler was the first American diplomat to visit Russian Central Asia, and as American Consul General in Istanbul he played a key role in publicizing Turkish atrocities in Bulgaria in 1876 during the April Uprising.

Eugene Schuyler was the first American Minister to Romania and Serbia, and US Minister to Greece.

Eugene Schuyler was born in Ithaca, New York, on February 26,1840.

Eugene Schuyler was the son of Matilda Schuyler and George W Schuyler, a drugstore owner in Ithaca, New York, who later was elected New York State Treasurer and served as a member of the New York State Assembly.

Eugene Schuyler's mother was the half-sister of Charles Scribner, the founder of the famous American publishing house.

At the age of fifteen, Eugene Schuyler entered Yale College, where he studied languages, literature and philosophy.

Eugene Schuyler graduated with honors in 1859 and was a member of Skull and Bones.

In 1861, Eugene Schuyler earned a PhD in psychology and philosophy at Yale, and in doing, along with Arthur Williams Wright and James Morris Whiton, became the first Americans to earn the PhD degree from an American university.

In 1860, Eugene Schuyler became an assistant to Noah Porter, a prominent linguistician and literary figure, in the revision of Webster's Dictionary, the first dictionary of American English.

In 1862, Eugene Schuyler began to study law at Yale Law School, and received his law degree, in 1863, from Columbia Law School.

Eugene Schuyler began practicing law in New York, but did not find it very interesting.

Eugene Schuyler continued to write for The Nation until the end of his life.

Eugene Schuyler met some of the officers of the Russian flagship, the Alexander Nevsky, which inspired him to study Russian.

Eugene Schuyler learned Russian well enough to translate the novel of Ivan Turgenev, Fathers and Sons, which was published in 1867, the first translation of Turgenev to appear in the United States.

In 1864, Eugene Schuyler applied for a diplomatic post in the State Department.

En route to his post, Eugene Schuyler stopped in Baden-Baden to meet Turgenev, who gave him a letter of introduction to Lev Tolstoi.

Eugene Schuyler began his diplomatic tour in Moscow in August 1867.

In 1868, Eugene Schuyler was a guest of Tolstoi for a week at his estate at Yasnaya Polyana, at the time when Tolstoi was finishing War and Peace.

Eugene Schuyler helped Tolstoi rearrange his library, and went hunting with him.

Eugene Schuyler received Tolstoi's permission to translate his novel The Cossacks into English.

Eugene Schuyler was able to obtain a post as consul to the Russian port of Reval.

Curtin was impressed by Eugene Schuyler and appointed him as the secretary of the American legation in St Petersburg, a post which Eugene Schuyler held until 1876.

Eugene Schuyler was able to combine his diplomatic duties with scholarship and travel.

Eugene Schuyler began writing a major biography of Peter the Great, and frequented the meetings of the Russian Geographic Society in St Petersburg.

Eugene Schuyler left St Petersburg by train on March 23,1873, and traveled first to Saratov.

Eugene Schuyler was accompanied by an American journalist, Januarius MacGahan, who was working for the New York Herald.

MacGahan went from there to find the Russian Army at Khiva, while Eugene Schuyler travelled through Turkistan and Shymkent on to Tashkent, in present-day Uzbekistan, Samarkand, Bukhara and Kokand.

Eugene Schuyler returned to St Petersburg via Siberia and the Urals.

Eugene Schuyler's trip had taken eight months, but he brought back a wealth of geographical information.

Eugene Schuyler wrote extensively about his trip for the National Geographic Society in the United States, and he wrote a long report for the State Department.

Eugene Schuyler's report had been critical of the treatment of the Tatars by the Russian General Konstantin Petrovich Von Kaufman.

Eugene Schuyler wrote a two-volume book about his travels in Central Asia.

Eugene Schuyler tried unsuccessfully to be named Minister to Turkey, but that position went to a political appointee of the Grant administration and he was given the position once more of the secretary of the legation, and of consul general.

Eugene Schuyler learned of these massacres from the Bulgarian students and faculty of Robert College in Constantinople.

Eugene Schuyler prepared to travel to Bulgaria to investigate the reports.

Eugene Schuyler invited MacGahan to accompany him on his journey to Bulgaria.

Eugene Schuyler gave a vivid account of what he saw at the village of Batak, three months after the massacres had taken place:.

Eugene Schuyler discussed withdrawing Schuyler from Turkey, but decided against it, since he did not want to appear to be unsympathetic to the Bulgarians.

Eugene Schuyler was removed from Turkey and given the post of consul in Birmingham, England.

Eugene Schuyler presented his credentials to Romania on September 8,1882, to Serbia on November 10,1882, and to Greece on January 9,1883.

Eugene Schuyler presented his recall on September 7,1884, for Romania, his recall was transmitted by note by the Vice Consul General at Belgrade on September 19,1884, for Serbia, and he presented his recall on October 13,1884, for Greece.

In 1884, Eugene Schuyler left the diplomatic service to lecture at Johns Hopkins and Cornell University on diplomatic practice and the conduct of American diplomacy.

Eugene Schuyler was buried in the Protestant section of the San Michele cemetery on the island of Isola di San Michele in Venice.

Eugene Schuyler was the daughter of the late President of Columbia University Charles King, niece of former US Representative and New York Governor John Alsop King, and granddaughter of both Rufus King and Nicholas Low.

Eugene Schuyler's sister, Mary Alsop King Waddington, was a writer who was married to the Prime Minister of France William Henry Waddington.