Eugene Schuyler

Eugene Schuyler (February 26, 1840 – July 16, 1890) was a nineteenth-century American scholar, writer, explorer and diplomat. Schuyler was one of the first three Americans to earn a Ph.D. from an American university; and the first American translator of Ivan Turgenev and Lev Tolstoi. He was the first American diplomat to visit Russian Central Asia, and as American Consul General in Istanbul he played a key role in publicizing Turkish atrocities in Bulgaria in 1876 during the April Uprising. He was the first American Minister to Romania and Serbia, and U.S. Minister to Greece. Early life Schuyler was born in Ithaca, New York, on February 26, 1840. He was the son of Matilda (née Scribner) Schuyler and George W. Schuyler, a drugstore owner in Ithaca, New York, who later was elected New York State Treasurer and served as a member of the New York State Assembly. Schuyler's siblings included Walter S. Schuyler, a U.S. Army brigadier general. His father's ancestors, of Dutch descent, included Philip Schuyler, a general in George Washington's army and a U.S. Senator. His mother was the half-sister of Charles Scribner, the founder of the famous American publishing house. At the age of fifteen, Schuyler entered Yale College, where he studied languages, literature and philosophy. He graduated with honors in 1859 and was a member of Skull and Bones. He became one of the first graduate students at Yale, and in 1861, he and two other students were the first Americans to receive Ph.D.s from an American university.