Herman Vandenburg Ames

Herman Vandenburg Ames (; August 7, 1865 – February 7, 1935) was an American legal historian, archivist, and professor of United States constitutional history at the University of Pennsylvania and, from 1907 to 1928, dean of its graduate school. His 1897 monograph, ''The Proposed Amendments to the Constitution of the United States During the First Century of Its History'', was a landmark work in American constitutional history. 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.

A member of the Ames family, Herman 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, and studied under Albert Bushnell Hart. Like Hart, Ames spent time in Europe learning German historical methodology and was influenced in his own research by its approach. 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 papers are housed at the University of Pennsylvania's University Archives. Provided by Wikipedia