11 Facts About Philip Lindsley

Philip Lindsley was an American Presbyterian minister, educator and classicist.

Philip Lindsley served as the acting president of the College of New Jersey from 1822 to 1824, and as the first president of the now-defunct University of Nashville from 1824 to 1850.

Philip Lindsley was educated in private academies and graduated from the College of New Jersey, now Princeton University.

Philip Lindsley started teaching Latin and Greek at Princeton University in 1808.

Philip Lindsley then served as its vice president from 1817 to 1822, and as its Acting President from 1822 to 1824.

Philip Lindsley hired respected scholars as faculty in fields including classics, foreign languages, mathematics, and geology.

Philip Lindsley resigned his position in 1850, when the university suspended operations as a result of the cholera epidemic which led to low enrollment and to financial difficulties.

Philip Lindsley promoted the Nashville city slogan "Athens of the South", a sobriquet coined by Leroy J Halsey that reflected his goal of making the University of Nashville into a nationally recognized institution.

Philip Lindsley was an advocate for better education at all levels, becoming one of the first academics to urge the formal training of school teachers in normal schools.

Philip Lindsley married Margaret Lawrence Lindsley, the daughter of Nathaniel Lawrence, who was New York Attorney General from 1792 to 1795.

In 1849, Lindsley married Mary Ann Myers, widow of Elias Myers, the founder of New Albany Theological Seminary.