Charles Hamlin

Charles Sumner Hamlin (1861–1938) was an American lawyer and the first Chairman of the Federal Reserve.

He was born in Boston, Massachusetts on August 30, 1861, and graduated from Harvard University in 1886. From 1893 to 1897 and again from 1913 to 1914 he was the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury. He twice ran unsuccessfully for governor of Massachusetts, in 1902 and 1910. On August 10, 1914, he was appointed the first Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board and served in that capacity until August 10, 1916. He lectured at Harvard on government in 1902 and 1903; In 1912 was vice president of the Woodrow Wilson College Men's League and president of the Woodrow Wilson League of Massachusetts; and he published, besides pamphlets on statistical and financial subjects, an "Index Digest of Interstate Commerce Laws" (1907) and the "Index Digest of the Federal Reserve Bulletin" (1921). He died in Washington, D.C. on April 25, 1938.