Johnson's Universal Cyclopaedia, published between 1892 and 1895 with Charles Kendall Adams as editor-in-chief, was a large-scale reference work that he would later follow with a successor volume, the Universal Cyclopaedia, in 1900. That an American educator and historian took on the editorial leadership of a project of this scale gives some sense of the range of work Adams carried out across his career.

Adams was born in Derby in 1835 and received his education at the University of Michigan, where his academic life took root. He went on to work as a teacher, writer, and academic administrator, eventually earning the degree of Legum Doctor. His career placed him within American higher education during the latter half of the nineteenth century, moving between the classroom, the administrator's office, and the editorial desk.

His institutional record was considerable. He served as the second president of Cornell University from 1885 until 1892, then moved to the University of Wisconsin, where he held the presidency from 1892 until 1901. Across those years he also carried out the editorial work that produced Johnson's Universal Cyclopaedia, a project running from 1892 to 1895, and later the Universal Cyclopaedia of 1900.

He stepped down from the University of Wisconsin in 1901 and died in Redlands on July 26, 1902. The Universal Cyclopaedia of 1900, a successor to the earlier reference work he had already shaped as editor-in-chief, stands as one of the last concrete projects he completed before his death.