Ohio History Journal

ARCHER BUTLER HULBERT

 

BY CHARLES B. GALBREATH¹

 

The numerous acquaintances and friends of Archer

Butler Hulbert have heard with regret the news of his

death. This is especially true in Ohio where he lived

many years, where he finished his college education at

Marietta, where he commenced his literary career at

Columbus, and where he taught for a time in his alma

mater. Though born in another State, his interest in

Ohio and her uncomparable history was sympathetic and

abiding.

We have before us a copy of the Colorado Springs

Evening Telegraph of December 25, 1933, which has an

extended obituary sketch from which we quote:

"Death last night closed the notable career of Dr. Archer

Butler Hulbert, 60, following only a week's illness with influenza

at his home, 14 East Fontanero Street. Educator, writer and

lecturer, Dr. Hulbert had carved a niche in the hall of fame as an

authority on American history, the latter years of his career hav-

ing been devoted to his writings on the history of the American

west. He was professor of history and head of the history de-

partment at Colorado College and director of the Stewart Com-

mission on Western History, an important branch of the college.

Stricken ill only a week ago, few people realized the serious-

ness of Dr. Hulbert's condition. The middle of last week he

appeared greatly improved but Saturday took a turn for the worse

and yesterday afternoon failed rapidly, death coming at 10:15

o'clock last night. The shock of his death cast a shadow over the

Christmas holiday for hundreds of friends and today messages of

sympathy came from all parts of the country to members of his

1 This sketch was left unfinished by Mr. Galbreath at the time of his

death.

Vol. XLIII--30           (465)

• 1
 

466       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications family. The loss of Dr. Hulbert is keenly felt by the board of trustees and members of the faculty of Colorado College. His many achievements in the literary field have added much to the prestige of Colorado College. His loss is a particularly heavy blow for Philip B. Stewart, friend, counselor and founder of the

Stewart Commission on Western History of which Dr. Hulbert was the director and guiding genius. "Overwork is believed to have been the principal contributing factor in the death of Dr. Hulbert. Only recently he had returned from New York City, where for a month he labored day and night with his publishers, Doubleday, Doran & Company, on the revision of his high school textbook, The United States History. This work had received wide acclaim among historians as one of

• 2
 

Archer Butler Hulbert               467

 

the finest of its kind and it was rapidly being adopted by depart-

ments of public instruction in many States. A revision to bring

it up to the present day was deemed advisable and Dr. Hulbert

plunged into the work with his customary enthusiasm.

"For the last several years Dr. Hulbert had spent several

months each winter in California where he was lecturer on

western history at Pomona College, Claremont.  There he con-

ducted much research work in Huntington Library in connection

wth the Stewart Commission on Western History. On his return

from California last spring he was not in the best of health but

improved rapidly and during the summer was considered in good

physical condition. This recuperative power was ascribed largely

to his love of the outdoors and his penchant for one of his greatest

hobbies, golf.

"Complications followed his illness with influenza and he was

unable to throw off the toxic poisons as had been expected.

"Dr. Hulbert was a native of Vermont and came of a notable

New England family. His father was Rev. Calvin Butler Hul-

bert, a noted divine of his day. Two brothers are prominent in

the east. Henry Woodward Hulbert of Framingham Center,

Massachusetts, is a minister and writer, and Homer B. Hulbert of

Springfield, Massachusetts, an author of note.

"Possessed of a broad education and extensively traveled in

this country, Europe and the Orient, Dr. Hulbert had attained the

height of his powers and his literary ability. His unqualified suc-

cess is attested by the hundreds of unsolicited reviews and criti-

cisms of his more recent works from the members of the literary

craft and from the warm messages of congratulation received on

the many works turned out by him.

"Colorado may be justly proud of this adopted son, honored

by many colleges and universities and possessor of the coveted

F. R. G. S. symbolical of election to the great organization the

Royal Geographical Society of Great Britain. Born in Benning-

ton, Vermont, January 26, 1873, he was fitted for college at St.

Johnsbury Academy, where he was a classmate of the late Presi-

dent Calvin Coolidge, and graduated from Marietta College,

Marietta, Ohio, in 1895. His Alma Mater conferred upon him

the honorary M. A. in 1904 and other honorary degrees since re-

ceived include L. H. D. Middlebury (Vermont) College, 1929.

Following his college career he continued his studies at Western

Reserve, Chicago, Wisconsin, Columbia and Harvard Universi-

ties and later in both London and Paris.

"He began his academic teaching at the summer session of the

University of Chicago in 1904 and in addition to his literary work

has served continuously on the faculties of Marietta College, Clark

• 3
 

468       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

 

University and Colorado College during the intervening years.

His other appointments include teaching at summer sessions in

Columbia and Chicago universities and lectures at scores of other

institutions of learning, including a Goldwin Smith lecture at

Cornell University.

"Dr. Hulbert's investigations have taken him both to Europe

and the Orient and few if any have studied more carefully so

many parts of the United States with reference to relationships

of geography and history. He came to Colorado College in 1920

as professor of history and later was named head of the depart-

ment of history. In 1925 he assumed the chairmanship of the

Stewart commission on western history which post he has since

held.

"The commission was founded by a fellow Vermonter, Philip

Battell Stewart, (son of Governor Stewart of Vermont and close

personal friend of the late President Theodore Roosevelt) and

Mrs. Frances C. Stewart of Colorado Springs with whom Charles

B. Vorhis of Pasadena, California, is now associated. The pub-

lications of the commission are taking an important place in Amer-

ican historical literature.

"In the intervening span scores of volumes on American his-

tory and allied subjects have been written by Dr. Hulbert in addi-

tion to innumerable lectures. His trails blueprints are used in

scores of public libraries and institutions of learning in this and

foreign countries.

"Among some of his notable lecture assignments Dr. Hulbert

has served the government on more than one occasion. From

1905 to 1914 he was lecturer on the economics of good roads

for the office of public roads, United States department of agri-

culture, and during the war, 1917-1918, he was lecturer for the

war work council of the Y. M. C. A. In addition he was a Uni-

versity of Chicago lecturer from 1904 to 1923. He has also been

connected with the University Extension Society of Pittsburgh,

Chautauqua institution, archivist Harvard commission on western

history and a member of the board of editors of the Mississippi

Valley Historical Review.

"Dr. Hulbert was a member of the American Historical As-

sociation; Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society (life); Ohio

Valley Historical Society (president); Interstate Good Roads

Association (vice president); Delta Upsilon; Rufus Putnam

Memorial Association; Ohio Historical and Philosophical Society;

American Antiquarian Society; Phi Beta Kappa and Fellow of

the Royal Geographical Society. He was also a member of the

El Paso Club and the Broadmoor Golf Club. He was a member

of the First Congregational Church."

• 4
 

Archer Butler Hulbert          469

Archer Butler Hulbert grew in historical literary

power and fame with the passing of the years. To him

could literally be applied the somewhat trite phrase "in-

defatigable worker." In 1925, the State Library of

Vermont published, on the completion of the twenty-fifth

year of his academic teaching, a bibliography of 102

items of his writings. These are presented under three

captions: "Independent Works," "Edited Works," and

"Contributions to Periodicals (selected)."

A goodly number of his "Independent Works" were

published in Ohio.  The same is true of his "Edited

Works" and his "Contributions to Periodicals." In fact

his literary career began in Ohio. His first two books

were published by the F. J. Heer Printing Co. who had

previously printed them as contributions in the Ohio

Archaeological and Historical Quarterly.

The first of these two small volumes appeared first in

Volume VIII of the Quarterly, pp. 263-295 under the

title, "The Indian Thoroughfares of Ohio, with illustra-

tions and maps, 1900." The year following appeared

Mr. Hulbert's second volume. It appeared first in Vol-

ume IX of the Quarterly as "The Old National Road; a

Chapter of American Expansion." The writer of this

sketch well remembers when Mr. Hulbert was writing

these two books. He was then writing for the Ohio

State Journal, devoting much of his time to the trails

and early highways of the State.

In the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly,

Volume IX, pp. 205-213, 1900, appeared "The Debt of

the West to Washington." While this did not appear in

separate form, it indicated an early interest that re-

mained with the author through life.  Many of the

• 5
 

470      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications subjects of his later writings had reference to trails, waterways, roads, the methods and facilities of trans- portation, expansion and the father of his country and his relationship to both. Of his works published since 1929 especially notable is his Forty Niners, which was awarded the Atlantic Monthly $5,000 prize in 1931.

• 6