Herman Vandenburg Ames

Herman Vandenburg Ames

Herman Vandenburg Ames was an American legal historian, archivist, and professor of United States constitutional history. He was a driving force behind the establishment of the Pennsylvania State Archives. His 1897 monograph, The Proposed Amendments to the Constitution of the U.S. During the First Century of Its History, was a landmark work in American constitutionalhistory. Ames’ great grandfather, Job Ames, served in the Massachusetts Militia during the American Revolution.

About Herman Vandenburg Ames in brief

Summary Herman Vandenburg AmesHerman Vandenburg Ames was an American legal historian, archivist, and professor of United States constitutional history. He was a driving force behind the establishment of the Pennsylvania State Archives and helped guide the widespread establishment of government archives throughout the United States. His 1897 monograph, The Proposed Amendments to the Constitution of the U.S. During the First Century of Its History, was a landmark work in American constitutionalhistory. Other works by Ames included John C. Calhoun and the Secession Movement of 1850, Slavery and the Union 1845–1861, and The X. Y. Z. Letters, the latter of which he authored with John Bach McMaster. Among his notable students were Ezra Pound, John Musser, and Herbert Eugene Bolton. Ames was born in Massachusetts and educated at Amherst College. He received his doctorate from Harvard University, where he was the Ozias Goodwin Memorial Fellow in Constitutional and International Law. Ames spent time in Europe learning German historical methodology and was influenced in his own research by its approach. As dean of Pennsylvania’s graduate school from 1907 to 1928, he made his office in Ames Hall, a room in which he also made a room of his own. Ames’ great grandfather, Job Ames, served in the Massachusetts Militia during the American Revolution. The Ames family descended from William Ames, who immigrated to the Province of Massachusetts Bay from the town of Bruton, England, in 1641.

The family’s surname may have been a corruption of the name Amyas. In the 16th century Amyas was frequently confused with Ames, a name that was used in the early 19th century for a number of different things, including a school in Providence, Rhode Island, and a prison in Lancaster, Massachusetts. The name Ames is now used to refer to the Ames family of New Hampshire, which was once part of the New England region of New England, and to which the Ames surname was once attached. The surname Ames is also used as the name of a former member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, who served from 1849 to 1852. The last Ames to die in office was William Ames in 1881, who died in a car crash in New Hampshire in 1883. He is buried in Mount Vernon, Massachusetts, in a plot of land that was once owned by his great-great-grandfather, William Ames. He also is buried at Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania, in the family plot of his father’s former home, the Mowry and Goff School, which he had moved to after his death in 1885. Ames is survived by his wife, Jane Angeline Ames, and their three children. He died in 1998. He had a son, David Ames, with whom he had a daughter, Susan Ames. The couple had three sons, David and David Ames Jr., and a son-in-law, David Charles Ames. Ames died in 2011. He has a daughter and a grandson, David C. Ames.