William Allan Neilson was a Scottish-American educator, writer and lexicographer. He was president of Smith College

Smith College

Smith College is a private, independent women's liberal arts college located in Northampton, Massachusetts. It is the largest member of the Seven Sisters...

 between 1917 and 1939.

Neilson was born in Doune

Doune

Doune is a burgh in the district of Stirling, Scotland, on the River Teith. Doune's postal address places the town in Perthshire, although geographically it lies within the District of Stirling, and administratively Doune is under the control of Stirling Council...

, Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 and he emigrated to the United States in 1895, being naturalised 3 Aug 1905. He taught at Bryn Mawr College

Bryn Mawr College

Bryn Mawr College is a women's liberal arts college located in Bryn Mawr, a community in Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania, ten miles west of Philadelphia. The name "Bryn Mawr" means "big hill" in Welsh....

 from 1898 to 1900, Harvard

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

 from 1900 to 1904, Columbia

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...

 from 1904 to 1906, and Harvard again from 1906 to 1917. He wrote on poetry and William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

 and was the editor of Webster's New International Dictionary, Second Edition (1934).

External links

• Allison Lockwood, "Making of a president: Smith College's William Allan Neilson," Daily Hampshire Gazette, May 8, 2010.