Claxton, Philander Priestly, 1862–1957, American educator, b. Bedford co., Tenn., grad. Univ. of Tennessee (B.A., 1882; M.A., 1887) and studied at Johns Hopkins and in Germany. After several years' experience as a superintendent of schools in North Carolina, he taught at the North Carolina State Normal and Industrial College (1893–1902) and later was professor of education at the Univ. of Tennessee (1902–11). He served (1911–21) as U.S. commissioner of education, his administration being distinguished by marked expansion of the activities of the Bureau of Education. Claxton was afterward provost (1921–23) of the Univ. of Alabama and superintendent of schools (1923–29), Tulsa, Okla., and from 1930 was president of the Austin Peay Normal School in Clarksville, Tenn.
See biography by C. L. Lewis (1948).
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