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Born in Portage, Wisconsin, Turner spent most of his early adult life at the University of Wisconsin. He received his B.A. in 1884, then his M.A. in History in 1888. After a year of study at Johns Hopkins (Ph.D., 1890), he returned to join the History Department faculty at Wisconsin, where he taught for the next 21 years. He later taught at Harvard from 1910 to 1924 before retiring.

In 1893, Turner presented his famous paper, "The Significance of the Frontier in American History," at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. His ideas on the development of American culture's distinctive qualities generated debate and influenced historians for decades. Throughout his career, he continually elaborated and nuanced these ideas in both classes and writings. His books included Rise of the New West (1906), The Frontier in American History (1920) and The Significance of Sections in American History (1932), which was awarded a Pulitzer Prize the year after Turner's death.