Thomas Blanchard Stowell was born on March 29, 1846, in Perry, New York.

He was an American educator. He graduated from Genesee College, now Syracuse University, (B.A., 1865; M.A., 1868; Ph.D., 1881). He served as principal of the Addison Academy in Addison, New York (1865) and as chair of the Academic Department of the Union School in Morrisville, New York (1866). In 1867, he became a professor of mathematics at Genesee Wesleyan Seminary and, in 1868, he was principal of Morris High School in Leavenworth, Kansas. In 1869, he became the chair of Natural Sciences at the Cortland State Normal School in Cortland, New York, and stayed in this position for the next twenty years. In 1889, he left to become the principal of the Potsdam Normal School in Potsdam, New York and remained there for another twenty years. In 1909, he was awarded an honorary LL.D. from St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York. In 1909, Stowell left Potsdam to become the founding chair of the new Department of Education in the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Southern California (USC). In 1918, he was appointed the founding dean of its School of Education. Stowell was also an accomplished scientist in human and comparative anatomy, microscopy, and comparative neurology. He was a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He retired in 1919 after fifty-four years in education. The USC named the Thomas Blanchard Stowell Hall of Education and Stowell Research Library in his honour.

In 1869, he married Mary Caroline Blakeslee (1849–1935). He died in 1927 in Los Angeles, California.