Home; Department History; People; Townsend Harris; Townsend Harris (1804–1878) State of Residence: New York. Minister Resident (Japan) Appointed: January 19, 1859 Presentation of Credentials: November 5, 1859 Termination of Mission: Presented recall on April 26, 1862 ; Department History. A minor Democratic politician, Harris became the president of the New York City Board of Education in 1846 and was responsible THHS History Townsend Harris is a young school with an honored past. In 1848 the New York Free Academy, our first municipal institution of free higher education, was established by the Board of Education due largely to the effort of Townsend Harris who was, at the time, the president of the Board. Townsend Harris >American merchant and diplomat Townsend Harris (1804-1878), the first U.S. >envoy to reside in Japan, opened commercial relations between Japan and the >United States [1]. Townsend Harris was born on Oct. 3, 1804, in Sandy Hill, N.Y., and educated at the local primary school.
Townsend Harris, U.S. politician and diplomat, the first Western consul to reside in Japan, whose influence helped shape the future course of Japanese–Western relations.
Japan Journal, Part 3: Townsend Harris and Okichi 18 Apr. At the end of my previous entry, I was checking out of the Shimoda Tokyu Hotel on the morning of Wednesday, March 23, when I found a brochure describing other sites in Shimoda that I was now determined to visit. President Franklin Pierce named Harris the first Consul General to Tokugawa Japan in July, 1856, where he opened the first US Consulate at the Gyokusen-ji Temple in the city of Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture, some time after Commodore Matthew Perry had first opened trade between the US and Japan in 1854. He is particularly known for the US-Japan Treaty of Amity and Commerce, also known as the Harris Treaty. The Free Academy later became the City College of New York. Townsend Harris was the first Consul General of the United States to Japan, and the founder of the City University of New York (CUNY). Townsend Harris facts: American merchant and diplomat Townsend Harris (1804-1878), the first U.S. envoy to reside in Japan, opened commercial relations between Japan and the United States.
Following Commodore Perry's 1854 Convention of Kanagawa, a US consulate was established at Shimoda. Townsend Harris - People - Department History.