The James J. Goodwin Professor of English professorship was established in 1917 following the death of Trustee James J. Goodwin in 1915. Goodwin and his wife gifted money to the school, including a $50,000 endowment that he wished to be gifted to a “professorship preferably of Literature.”

A list of faculty who have been recorded as holding the position and receiving subsequent funding include:

Odell Shepard: 1919-1944 (last mentioned)

Morse S. Allen: 1947-1961

Frederick L. Gwynn: 1962-1966

J. Bard McNulty: 1966-1984

Paul Smith: ca. 1984-1992

Milla C. Riggio: ca. 2000-2017

The Trinity Ivy, 2014, p. 84.

Trinity College in the Twentieth Century (2000) by Peter and Anne Knapp, p. 398.

The Trinity Reporter, Summer 1992, p. 3.

Trinity College Bulletin, 1983-1894 (Report of the President), pp. 11-12.

Trinity College Bulletin, 1965-1966, p. 17.

Trinity College Bulletin, 1962-1963, p. 11.

Trinity College Bulletin, 1960-1961, p. 10.

Trinity College Bulletin, 1946-1947, p. 6.

Trinity College Bulletin, 1943-1944, p. 9.

The Trinity Tripod, 02/25/1919.

Trinity College Bulletin, July 1917, p. 39.