GeorgeFootMoore was born on 15 October 1851 in West Chester, Pennsylvania (to the southwest of Philadelphia), and died roughly four years after receiving the letter, on 6 May 1931 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Moore graduated from Yale University in 1872 and Union Theological Seminary in 1877.
In 1902 Moore was appointed a Professor of Theology and then (in 1904) a Professor of History of Religion at Harvard University.