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Herbert Baxter Adams

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HERBERT BAXTER ADAMS (1850-1901), American historian and educationalist, was born at Shutesbury (near Amherst), Massachusetts, on the 16th of April 1850. He graduated at Amherst, at the head of his class, in 1872;� and between 1873 and 1876 he studied political science, history and economics at Göttingen, Berlin and Heidelberg, Germany, receiving the degree of Ph.D.at Heidelberg in 1876, with the highest honours ( summa cum laude). From 1876 almost until his death he was connected with the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, being in turn a fellow, an associate in history (1878-1883), an associate professor (1883-1891) and after 1891 professor of American and institutional history. In addition he was lecturer on history in Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1878-1881, and for many years took an active part in Chautauqua work. In 1884, also, he was one of the founders of the American Historical Association, of which he was secretary until 1900. In 1882 he founded the "Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science," and at the time of his death some forty volumes had been issued under his editorship. After 1887 he also edited for the United States Bureau of Education the series of monographs entitled "Contributions to American Educational History," he himself preparing the College of William and Mary (1887), and Thomas Jefferson and the University of Virginia (1888). It was as a teacher, however, that Adams rendered his most valuable services, and many American historical scholars owe their training and to a considerable extent their enthusiasm to him. He died at Amherst, Massachusetts, on the 30th of July 1901.

In addition to the monographs mentioned above, he published: Maryland's Influence in Founding a National Commonwealth (1877); Methods of Historical Study (1884); Maryland's Influence upon Land Cessions to the United States (1885); and the Life and Writings of Jared Sparks (2 vols., Boston, 1893), his most important work.

See Herbert B. Adams: Tributes of Friends (Baltimore, 1902), extra volume (xxiii.) of "Studies in Historical and Political Science."