The Biographical Dictionary of America/Adams, Herbert Baxter

ADAMS, Herbert Baxter, educator, was born in Shutesbury, Mass., April 16, 1850; son of Nathaniel Dickinson and Harriet (Hastings) Adams. He was a student at Phillips-Exeter and was graduated at Amherst, A.B., 1872, and A.M., 1875, and in political science at Heidelberg, receiving the degree of Ph.D. 1876. He became connected with the Johns Hopkins university in Baltimore, Md., as fellow, instructor, associate, and professor of history, and was promoted head of the department of history and political science. In 1882 he began to edit "John Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science" embracing nineteen annual and twenty-one extra volumes. To this series he made numerous contributions, chiefly in the line of American institutional and economic history. In 1887 he began to edit for the bureau of education, Washington. D.C., "Contributions to American Educational History," embracing American colleges and universities in state groups. Dr. Adams prepared for this series: "The Study of History in American Colleges and Universities," "The College of William and Mary" and "Thomas Jefferson and the University of Virginia." He was secretary of the American Historical Association from its organization in 1884, and edited its published papers. His work is highly valued by historical students. He made a report to the U.S. bureau of education on summer schools in Europe in 1896. He resigned the chair of American and institutional history at Johns Hopkins university in December, 1900, to take effect in February, 1901, and then visited Florida, returning to his home in Amherst, Mass. He was a member of the New England historic-genealogical society, 1881-86; received the degree LL.D. from the University of Alabama in 1891, and from Amherst in 1899, and wrote "Life and Writings of Jared Sparks" (2 vols., 1893). He died at Amherst, Mass., July 30, 1901.