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Herbert Baxter Adams, 1850-1901.
American historian of the "New Generation" at Johns Hopkins.
Born in Shutesbury, Massachusetts of early English colonial stock,
Herbert Baxter Adams was educated at Philips Exeter Academy and went on
to enroll at Amherst College, graduating in 1872 at the top of his
class. After a year teaching classics at Williston Seminary, Adams left
the United States for graduate study in
Germany. After a few months in
France and Lausanne, Adams enrolled at courses in history and political
science in Heidelberg in early 1874 (where he met fellow American
student John Bates Clark). He proceeded for a
period of study at Göttingen and Berlin, before returning to Heidelberg
to complete his doctorate in 1876 under political scientist J.C.
Bluntschli and the German historicist
Karl Knies.
Herbert Baxter Adams returned in the Fall of 1876 to the United States
to take up a fellowship in history at the newly-founded
the Johns Hopkins University. From
1878, Adams was made associate professor in history (he also held a
part-time appointment at Smith College in Massachusetts between 1878-81)
and, finally, in 1891, "Professor of American and Institutional
History".
Although primarily a historian, Henry Baxter Adams saw it as a part of
political science. His principal area of research was early American
colonial and educational history. Adams is often credited for
introducing the "seminar" system of teaching into American universities
and making student research central to graduate studies. Adams's history
seminar at Hopkins was influential and much imitated. In 1882, Adams
launched The Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical
and Political Science, and in 1884 was one of the founders of the
American Historical Association. He also edited the "Contributions to
American Educational History" series for the US Bureau of Education.
Hebert B. Adams was the head of the Department of History, Economics and Politics at Johns Hopkins. Through the 1880s, historian Herbert Baxter Adams and economist Richard T. Ely trained the next generation of American Institutionalists at Hopkins. Adams's most notable students however were primarily historians, notably Woodrow Wilson and Frederick Jackson Turner.
Falling ill in 1899, Adams died in 1901.
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