Charles Seymour (January 1 1885 - August 11 1963) was an American historian and President of Yale University from 1937 to 1951.

He was born in New Haven, Connecticut. He was awarded a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Cambridge in 1904, and a separate B.A. from Yale in 1908. He went on to earn a Masters of Arts from Cambridge in 1909, and a Ph.D. from Yale in 1911. He served as the provost of the University of Berkeley College, where in 1908 he helped expand and protect the Yale Residential Colleges . He then taught history at Yale from 1911 to 1937, when he became president of the university. While president, he inaugurated several interdepartmental majors such as American Studies. Additionally, Seymour served as the chief of the Austro-Hungarian Division of the American Commission to Negotiate Peace , and as the U.S. delegate on the Romanian, Yugoslavian, and Czechoslovakian Territorial Commissions in 1919.

He died in Chatham, Massachusetts on August 11 1963. His son, Charles Seymour, Jr. , became a professor of art history at Yale.

Quote: "We seek the truth and will endure the consequences."