The Rev. William Allen (1784-1868), a native of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, was a graduate of Harvard. He was a minister and became a librarian at Harvard, where he prepared the first "American Biographical and Historical Dictionary."

After serving for three years as president of Dartmouth College, Allen became the president of Bowdoin College in 1820, the year of Maine's separation from Massachusetts. He was instrumental in defining the college's role within the new state's political and legal systems.

Allen resigned in 1839, and wrote extensively.