Carl Bridenbaugh

Carl Bridenbaugh (10 August 1903-6 January 1992)

Carl was born on 10 August 1903 in Philadelphia. He earned a bachelor's degree at Dartmouth College and master's and doctoral degrees at Harvard University.

He served in the Navy in World War II during which time he lost his first wife, the former Jessica Hill when she died in 1943.

Carl Bridenbaugh was the first director of the Institute of Early American History and Culture at Williamsburg, Vaginia, from 1945 to 1950. He served as president of the American Historical Association in 1962 and stirred a debate with a speech to the organization contending that urbanites were ill-suited to analyze Colonial history because they did not understand rural culture.

He wrote 15 books and numerous articles for journals and newspapers. His books included "Cities in the Wilderness" (1938), "Rebels and Gentlemen" (1942), "Seat of Empire" (1950), "Cities in Revolt" (1955), "Mitre and Sceptre" (1962), "Vexed and Troubled Englishmen" (1968), "No Peace Beyond the Line" (1971), "The Spirit of '76" (1975) and "Jamestown 1544-1699" (1980).

Carl, an authority on Colonial America, taught history for 11 years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 12 years at the University of California at Berkeley and 11 years at Brown, Providence, where he retired in 1969. He held a fellowship at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University and was a Guggenheim fellow three times.

He was on the committee that led to the formation of the National Humanities Foundation and also served on the Historic American Buildings Survey.

He died aged 88 years old of cancer on 6th January 1992 at Rhode Island Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island, where he had lived and taught at Brown University.

His only immediate survivor was his second wife, the former Roberta Haines Herriott (22 Oct 1902-Mar 1996) from New York, who was co-author of "Vexed and Troubled Englishmen" and "No Peace Beyond the Line". She herself died at the age of 93.