James Walker (August 16, 1794 – December 23, 1874) was a Unitarian minister, professor, and President of Harvard College from February 10, 1853, to January 26, 1860.

During this period, he was active in his parochial duties and in advocating the cause of school and college education, lectured extensively and with success, and was a close student of literature and philosophy.

In 1838, Walker was appointed Harvard's Alford Professor of Natural Religion, Moral Philosophy, and Civil Polity, which position he held until 1853, when he was elected president of the college.

Other works are Sermons preached in the Chapel of Harvard College (Boston, 1861) a Memorial of Daniel Appleton White (1863), and a Memoir of Josiah Quincy (1867).

Sermons, Reason, faith and Duty, preached chiefly in the college chapel, Boston, American Unitarian Association, 1892, was published "by his brothers," He also edited, as college textbooks, Dugald Stewart's Philosophy of the Active and Moral Powers (1849), and Thomas Reid's Essays on the Intellectual Powers, Abridged, with Notes and Illustrations from Sir William Hamilton and Others (1850).