| James Clarke Welling | |
| Birth Date: | 14 July 1825 |
| Birth Place: | Trenton, New Jersey |
| Death Place: | Hartford, Connecticut |
| Alma Mater: | Princeton University, 1844 |
| Known For: | President of Columbian University, now the George Washington University and cofounder of the National Geographic Society |
| Signature: | Signature of James Clarke Welling (1825–1894).png |
James Clarke Welling (July 14, 1825 – September 4, 1894) was the President of Columbian University, now the George Washington University, Washington, DC, from 1871 to 1894.[1] He was a cofounder of the National Geographic Society.[2]
James Clarke Welling was born in Trenton, New Jersey on July 14, 1825. He graduated from Princeton University in 1844.[3] During the Civil War, he wrote for the National Intelligencer.[4] Welling was a professor at Princeton when in 1871 he accepted the presidency of Columbian College.[5] He became the sixth president of the university.
He was one of the ten founders of the Cosmos Club in 1878.[6] In 1884, he served as president of the Philosophical Society of Washington.[7]
"The last occasion in which he appeared in public was at the laying of the new cornerstone of the Corcoran Gallery of Art."[8] Welling died at his summer residence in Hartford, Connecticut on September 4, 1894.[9]