Herman Vandenburg Ames

Herman Vandenburg Ames
Born	(1865-08-07)August 7, 1865 Lancaster, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	February 7, 1935(1935-02-07) (aged 69) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation(s)	Historian, educator
Years active	1897–1933
Title	Professor
Board member of	Order of the Founders and Patriots of America (Governor-General) Public Archives Commission of the American Historical Association (President)
Parent(s)	Marcus Ames Jane Angeline Ames (née Vandenburg)
Awards	Justin Winsor Prize (1897)
Academic background
Education	Amherst College (AB) Harvard University (AM, PhD)
Thesis	The Proposed Amendments to the Constitution of the United States[1] (1891)
Doctoral advisor	Albert Bushnell Hart
Academic work
Discipline	History
Sub-discipline	Legal history
Institutions	University of Michigan Ohio State University University of Pennsylvania
Doctoral students	Herbert Eugene Bolton Arthur Charles Cole John Musser
Notable students	Ezra Pound
Main interests	History of the U.S. Constitution
Notable works	The Proposed Amendments to the Constitution of the United States During the First Century of Its History (1896)
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Herman Vandenburg Ames (/eɪmz/; 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.