Talcott Williams, was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 journalist and educator, born at Abeih, Turkey, the son of Congregational missionaries

Missionary

A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...

. He graduated from Amherst

Amherst College

Amherst College is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Amherst is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 1,744 students in the fall of 2009...

 in 1873. Afterwards. he was employed at the New York World, and as a correspondent for the New York Sun and the San Francisco Chronicle. He was an editorial writer for the Springfield (Mass.)

Springfield, Massachusetts

Springfield is the most populous city in Western New England, and the seat of Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers; the western Westfield River, the eastern Chicopee River, and the eastern...

 Republican in 1879-81. He worked as an editor of the Philadelphia

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...

 Press for 30 years, until 1912, when he became director of the new School of Journalism at Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

, built and endowed by Joseph Pulitzer

Joseph Pulitzer

Joseph Pulitzer April 10, 1847 – October 29, 1911), born Politzer József, was a Hungarian-American newspaper publisher of the St. Louis Post Dispatch and the New York World. Pulitzer introduced the techniques of "new journalism" to the newspapers he acquired in the 1880s and became a leading...

. With F. M. Colby

Frank Moore Colby

Frank Moore Colby was an American educator and writer, born in Washington, D. C.. He graduated from Columbia University in 1888, was acting professor of history at Amherst College in 1890-91, lecturer on history at Columbia and instructor in history and economics at Barnard College from 1891 to...

, he was editor of the New International Encyclopedia

New International Encyclopedia

The New International Encyclopedia was an American encyclopedia first published in 1902 by Dodd, Mead and Company. It descended from the International Cyclopaedia and was updated in 1906, 1914 and 1926.-History:...

. In 1913, he served as president of the American Conference of Teachers of Journalism.

Williams was a good friend of artist Thomas Eakins

Thomas Eakins

Thomas Cowperthwait Eakins was an American realist painter, photographer, sculptor, and fine arts educator...

. Eakins included a depiction of Williams in The Swimming Hole

The Swimming Hole

The Swimming Hole is an 1884–85 painting by the American artist Thomas Eakins , Goodrich catalog #190, in the collection of the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. Executed in oil on canvas, it depicts six men swimming naked in a lake, and is considered a masterpiece of American painting...

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