James T. Shotwell

James T. Shotwell
James T. Shotwell (1920)
Born	August 6, 1874 Strathroy, Ontario, Canada
Died	July 15, 1965(1965-07-15) (aged 90) Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States
Known for	International Labor Organization, inclusion of declaration of human rights in UN Charter
Spouse(s)	Margaret Harvey
Children	Helen Shotwell, Margaret Grace Shotwell

James Thomson Shotwell (August 6, 1874 – July 15, 1965) was a Canada-born American history professor. He played an instrumental role in the creation of the International Labor Organization (ILO) in 1919, as well as for his influence in promoting inclusion of a declaration of human rights in the UN Charter.

Shotwell was born in Strathroy, Ontario, to American Quaker parents.

He obtained a B.A. from the University of Toronto in 1898. He obtained his doctorate from Columbia University in 1900, where he studied under James Harvey Robinson.

Columbia University's alumni magazine records:

At Columbia he encountered a lively intellectual community, seized with debates about the "New History." He quickly adopted his adviser’s view that the increasingly influential "scientific" methods of studying society might be applied to the practice of history and he applied them in his dissertation in medieval history, "A Study of the History of the Eucharist." He would later observe that although he took "a semester on the history of international law, by the distinguished jurist John Basset Moore, later a judge on the World Court... this was the only course that had any bearing on international relations in the faculty of Political Science, a subject... on which most of my later life was spent."

In 1903, Shotwell became an History instructor.

To underwrite studies overseas, he began writing articles for the Encyclopedia Britannica; soon, he became managing editor of its eleventh edition. This work provided a good salary, honed his organizational skills, and led to his meeting people like Bertrand Russell and Henry Ford. Eventually, he wrote some 250 articles.