Elgin Gould
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Elgin Ralston Lovell Gould (1860–1915) was a Canadian social scientist, educator, and lacrosse coach. In 1883, he served as the first head coach of the lacrosse team at Johns Hopkins University.
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Ottawa, Canada West
Cartier, Ontario
| |
| Biographical details | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 15, 1860 Ottawa, Canada West |
| Died | August 18, 1915 (aged 55) Cartier, Ontario |
| Alma mater | University of Toronto |
| Playing career | |
| 1882 | Johns Hopkins (football) |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| 1883 | Johns Hopkins (lacrosse) |
| Head coaching record | |
| Overall | 0–1 |
Early life and college
Gould was born in Ottawa, Canada West, on August 15, 1860.[1] He attended college at the University of Toronto and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1881.[2] The following year, he emigrated to the United States and attended Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. From 1882 to 1884, he held a Fellowship in the history and political science departments under Herbert Baxter Adams.[1] He also played a role in increasing the importance of lacrosse at Johns Hopkins.[1][2] In 1883, Gould coached the first official lacrosse Johns Hopkins lacrosse team. That inaugural season consisted of one game, in which Hopkins lost to the Druid Lacrosse Club, 4–0, on May 11.[3][4] Gould also played on the first Johns Hopkins football team.[5] Gould befriended future President Woodrow Wilson while attending the university.[1]
Professional career
He spent some time working as an assistant to statistician Carroll D. Wright at the Department of Labor in Washington, D.C.[1] Gould received his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins in 1886.[2] He married Mary Hurst née Purnell of Baltimore in 1887,[1] and they had six children, two of whom died in infancy.[2] One of their sons, Erl Clinton Barker Gould, was an original member of the First Yale Unit prior to World War I.[2]
Gould was then employed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which sent him to Europe to study living conditions of laborers.[1] In 1892, he returned to Johns Hopkins University, and taught social sciences there until 1897.[1][2] Gould then taught as a professor at the University of Chicago.[1]
He moved to New York City where he was tasked with helping to address the city's congestion and poor housing conditions. Gould served as the city chamberlain under Mayor Seth Low.[1] He was also a founder of the Citizens Union, a government watchdog organization established to oppose the Tammany Hall political machine.[2]
Gould's work often concerned city sanitation and living conditions.[6][7] One source wrote that he was "a major proponent of the idea of philanthropic housing".[8] He suggested that entrepreneurs build working-class housing outside of the cities, where commuters would travel by streetcar, an emerging form of transportation at the time.[8] His goal was to reduce the congestion and crowding in the tenement neighborhoods.[8]
He authored at least two books, The Social Condition of Labor in 1893, and the "influential 1895 volume", The Housing of the Working People.[9] Gould was killed in a horseback riding accident on August 18, 1915, in Cartier, Ontario.[2]