George Holmes Maxwell was a successful Boston patent attorney, financier, inventor and shoe manufacturer, and a steadfast defender of democracy, education, and the American Way, as it was defined in New England in 1900. 

He was born at Woodstock, New York, April 16, 1864, to Reverend Joseph and Elizabeth Maxwell. He worked his way through Syracuse University as a tutor, graduated in SU’s class of 1888, and was elected to its board of trustees in 1913.

Although distressed with American politics as it was practiced in that era, Maxwell retained his optimism about the nation’s future. He came to think that the best way to promote "intelligent patriotism" in future generations would be to create a fund of $500,000 for Syracuse to establish a "School of American Citizenship."

"The primary object of this school is to teach good citizenship," said Maxwell at the time of the School's founding, "to cull from every source those principles, facts, and elements which, combined, make up our rights and duties and our value and distinctiveness as United States citizens. This involves the diffusion of good citizenship throughout the entire student body."

In Maxwell’s mind, his college would graduate young people who would teach old-fashioned, patriotic values in their classrooms--civics. Frederick Morgan Davenport, a former educator and politician who had signed on as a consultant to the new college, argued for a school that also would graduate trained practitioners in public affairs--young people who could instantly enter government and immediately effect a change. The name of the school—the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs—reflected the coexistence of these two often diverse curricular directions; both of which were represented in the same school, thus making Maxwell a singular experiment in higher education in the United States. The singularity of that arrangement continues today.

The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs formally opened on October 3, 1924. Its first home was the second floor of Syracuse University's Slocum Hall. It began with six graduate students in public administration and a mission to teach citizenship to undergraduates in the University’s College of Liberal Arts.

The School quickly outgrew its space in Slocum Hall. In October 1937, Maxwell Hall opened for instruction, and on November 12, 1937, it was dedicated. The principal speaker at the ceremonies, held in Hendricks Chapel, was former president Herbert C. Hoover. Built in the colonial style, the most impressive part of the building was the lobby off the main entrance, a 40–by–70–feet antechamber that would become the most remembered part of Maxwell Hall for all its graduates. It is distinguished by its Ionic columns and dark terrazzo floor, and houses an exact replica of Houdon's life-size figure of George Washington.

Maxwell's other famous piece of sculpture is James Earle Fraser’s bronze cast of Abraham Lincoln, installed in late 1968 on the Maxwell Hall lawn -- lowered into place by a 50-foot crane. (The statue of America's 16th president weighs 2,770-pounds.) It is one of the most popular landmarks on the Syracuse University campus today.

For most of its existence, the Maxwell School grew, adding new research initiatives while serving more and more students, including the undergraduate students of the College of Arts and Sciences. This growth, though, created challenging demands on the School, especially its facilities.

In 1990, the School undertook the $50-million Campaign for Maxwell to provide for an array of programs, professorships, scholarships, and the like; and to fund a new building, recognizing the size and complexity of the Maxwell School of today. The groundbreaking for what would be called the Maxwell Complex took place on May 9, 1992. From the start, the plan was to create an “integrated social science complex,” planned around the old Maxwell Hall, which had been listed in the National Register of Historical Places and which, under the new  construction plan, was to receive a complete renovation.

By late December 1993, the move into the new building, Melvin A. Eggers Hall, was largely completed. There were two dedication ceremonies. The first, held on January 10, 1994, was Opening Day for Eggers Hall, when Dean John L. Palmer observed that for the first time “in nearly five decades…all of us can be housed under one continuous roof.” The second ceremony, officially dedicating the new Eggers Hall and renovated Maxwell Hall, was held on October 7, 1994, in the Lincoln courtyard. (More about Eggers Hall is available on the Facilities page.)

In mid-2003, John Palmer completed one of the most successful (and the second-longest) deanships in the history of the Maxwell School, returning to the faculty as a University Professor. Mitchel B. Wallerstein, a vice president of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and 1972 graduate of the School, was named to replace Palmer.

To date, the School boasts literally tens of thousands of Arts & Sciences undergraduate alumni who have either majored in Maxwell programs or taken its citizenship courses and nearly 8,000 graduate alumni, many of whom have held high-level positions in federal, state, and local governments, as well as in international organizations and governments around the world. These graduates more than fulfill George Maxwell’s plan for civics education rooted in the social sciences while providing America and the world leaders and practitioners who advance public life on a day-to-day basis.

This page current as of: December 30, 2003