Dr. Charles Sedgwick Minot was born on December 23, 1852, in Roxbury, Suffolk County, Massachusetts.

He was an American anatomist, lecturer, and author. He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1872 and studied biology at Leipzig, Paris, and Würzburg. He taught at Harvard Medical School from 1880 until his death. He was the James Stillman Professor of Comparative Anatomy in 1905 and director of the anatomical laboratories in 1912. He served as president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1901, and of the Association of American Anatomists from 1904 to 1905. His eminence in human and comparative embryology was recognized by honorary degrees from Yale, Toronto, St. Andrews, and Oxford universities. From 1912 to 1913 he served as Harvard exchange professor at Berlin and Jena. He published numerous papers and books, e.g., "Human Embryology" (1897), "The Problem of Age, Growth, and Death" (1908), and "Modern Problems of Biology" (1913).

In 1889, he married Lucy Woodbury Fosdick (1858–1939). He died on November 19, 1914, in Milton, Norfolk County, Massachusetts.