Ralph Henry Gabriel

{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2019}} {{Infobox academic | name = Ralph Henry Gabriel | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date|1890|4|29}} | birth_place = Reading, New York, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1987|4|25|1890|4|29}} | death_place = Hamden, Connecticut, U.S. | death_cause = | region = | nationality = | citizenship = | residence = | other_names = | occupation = | period = | known_for = | home_town = | title = | spouse = {{married|Mary Christine Davis|1917}} | partner = | children = 3 | parents = | relatives = | awards = | website = | education = Yale University (BA, MA, PhD) | alma_mater =  | thesis_title = | thesis_url = | thesis_year = | school_tradition = | doctoral_advisor = | academic_advisors = | influences =  | era = | discipline = | sub_discipline = American intellectual history | workplaces = Yale University | doctoral_students = David M. Potter | notable_students =  | main_interests = | notable_works = | notable_ideas = | influenced =  | signature = | signature_alt = | signature_size = | footnotes = }} '''Ralph Henry Gabriel''' (April 29, 1890 – April 25, 1987) was an American historian. He held the Sterling Professor Emeritus of History at Yale University and was the founding father of the American Studies Association.

==Early life and education== Gabriel was born on April 29, 1890, in Reading, New York, to parents Cleveland and Alta Monroe Gabriel. He earned his Bachelor of Arts, Masters of Arts and Ph.D. at Yale University before serving in the U.S. Army Infantry during World War I.<ref name = ":1">{{cite web |title=Gabriel, Ralph Henry, 1890–1987 |url=https://snaccooperative.org/ark:/99166/w6rj54d3 |website=snaccooperative.org |access-date=September 6, 2019}}</ref>

==Career== Gabriel joined the faculty of Yale in 1915.<ref name = "obituaries">{{cite news |title=Ralph Gabriel, 96, Dies; Taught at Yale for 43 Years |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/04/25/obituaries/ralph-gabriel-96-dies-taught-at-yale-for-43-years.html |access-date=September 6, 2019 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=April 25, 1987}}</ref> Simultaneously, Gabriel was hired as a general editor of ''The Pageant of America,'' an eventual 15-volume series of pictorial history of the development of the United States.<ref>{{cite web |title=THE YALE BANNER AND POT POURRI |url=https://archive.org/stream/yalebannerandpo00univgoog/yalebannerandpo00univgoog_djvu.txt |website=archive.org |access-date=September 6, 2019 |date=1926}}</ref>

In 1931, he collaborated with Stanley Thomas Williams, an English professor, to teach a course entitled "American Thought and Civilization."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Vanderbilt |first1=Kermit |title=American Literature and the Academy: The Roots, Growth, and Maturity of a Profession |date=1989 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |page=489 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZE5MevhJL78C&q=stanley+williams+ralph |access-date=September 6, 2019|isbn=0812212916 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author1=John Carlos Rowe |title=A Concise Companion to American Studies |date=2010 |publisher=John Wiley & Son |page=23 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ruG97vScWkIC&q=ralph+henry+gabriel+yale+course+1931&pg=PA23 |access-date=September 6, 2019|isbn=9781444319088 }}</ref> He claimed the course "stressed the systematic study of the history of the viewpoints of American writers, scholars, statesmen and reformers."<ref name = "obituaries"/> Afterwards, Gabriel served as chairman of the history department from 1931 to 1934.<ref name = ":1"/> Fellow professor William Robert Hutchison cited Gabriel as a mentor in the history department and called him a "perennial teacher and friend".<ref>{{cite news |title=William Robert Hutchison |url=https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2006/10/william-robert-hutchison/ |access-date=September 6, 2019 |newspaper=The Harvard Gazette |date=September 18, 2006}}</ref> In 1938, Gabriel worked alongside Mabel B. Casner, a Connecticut schoolteacher, to publish ''The Rise of American Democracy.''<ref>{{cite news |last1=Lepore |first1=Jill |title=People Power |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/10/24/people-power |access-date=September 6, 2019 |magazine=The New Yorker |date=October 16, 2005}}</ref>

A few years later, in 1940, Gabriel published ''The course of American democratic thought'' through the Ronald Press Company.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Brinton |first1=Crane |title=1940 REVIEWS |url=https://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=4133&context=ylj |website=digitalcommons.law.yale.edu |access-date=September 6, 2019 |page=359}}</ref> Although writing as a historian, Gabriel used anthropology to examine how America's "climate of opinion" affected society.<ref>{{cite journal |author1=E. H. Eby |title=Reviewed Work: The Course of American Democratic Thought: An Intellectual History Since 1815 by Ralph Henry Gabriel |journal=The Pacific Northwest Quarterly |date=July 1940 |volume=31 |issue=3 |pages=361–363 |jstor=41441156 }}</ref> He would go on to serve as director of Yale Studies for Returning Service Men from 1944 to 1946 and lecture at the United States School of Military Government.<ref name = ":1"/> He held the title of Larned Professor of American History from 1935 to 1948 before he was appointed to a Sterling Professor.<ref name = ":1"/> In 1941, Gabriel published a biography on Elias Boudinot through the University of Oklahoma Press.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Miller |first1=Perry |title=Elias Boudinot, Cherokee, and his America. By Ralph Henry Gabriel. [The Civilization of the American Indian |journal=The American Historical Review |date=April 1, 1942 |volume=47 |issue=3 |doi=10.2307/1840031 |jstor=1840031 |url=https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article-abstract/47/3/622/63767 |access-date=September 6, 2019|url-access=subscription }}</ref> In 1946, Gabriel founded a new department at Yale, entitled the American Studies Department, and later went on to be a founding father of the American Studies Association. However, Gabriel would end up resigning from the American Studies Department in protest during the Cold War.<ref name = "book">{{cite book |last1=Lepore |first1=Jill |title=The Story of America: Essays on Origins |date=2013 |publisher=Princeton University Press |page=11 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yyWqDwAAQBAJ&q=Ralph+Henry+Gabriel+founder&pg=PA11 |access-date=September 6, 2019|isbn=9780691159591 }}</ref> Gabriel was upset that Yale accepted a $500,000 donation on the condition the department focus on "the fundamental principles of American freedom in the field of politics and economics in order to combat the meaning of foreign philosophies".<ref name = "book"/> As he remained a professor at Yale, Gabriel achieved the rank of a professor emeritus in 1958 after he retired that June.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Historical News and Comments |journal=The Mississippi Valley Historical Review |date=December 1958 |volume=45 |issue=3 |page=537 |jstor=1889354 }}</ref>

In 1958, Gabriel served as a committee member on the US National Commission for UNESCO and was a US delegate at the UNESCO conference in Paris.<ref>{{cite news|title=Gabriel to speak at McAllister Conference|date=October 1, 1965|newspaper=Winnipeg Manitoban|location=Winnipeg|page=11|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/politics-clipping-oct-01-1965-1346762/}}{{free access}}</ref> During his lengthy tenure at Yale, Gabriel also served as the editor of the Library of Congress Series in American Civilization.<ref name = "theasa">{{cite web |title=About the Ralph Henry Gabriel Prize |url=https://www.theasa.net/awards/asa-awards-prizes/ralph-henry-gabriel-prize |website=theasa.net |access-date=September 6, 2019}}</ref>

==Awards and honors== In 1958, Gabriel was the recipient of an honorary degree from Williams College.<ref>{{cite news|title=Eight get honorary degrees at Williams Commencement|date=June 9, 1958|newspaper=Pittsfield Berkshire Eagle|location=Massachusetts|page=20|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/other-articles-clipping-jun-09-1958-1346755/}}{{free access}}</ref>

In 1966, Gabriel was awarded a DeVane Medal from Yale's Phi Beta Kappa chapter.<ref>{{cite web |title=DeVane Medalists |url=https://pbk.yalecollege.yale.edu/information/devane-medalists |website=pbk.yalecollege.yale.edu |access-date=September 6, 2019}}</ref> In 1975, he was the recipient of the Wilbur Cross Medal for "distinguished achievements in scholarship, teaching, academic administration, and public service".<ref>{{cite web |title=List of Past Wilbur Cross Recipients Medalists by Year |url=https://gsas.yale.edu/list-past-wilbur-cross-recipients |website=gsas.yale.edu |access-date=September 6, 2019 }}{{Dead link|date=July 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

Every year, the American Studies Association awards the Ralph Henry Gabriel Prize to the best doctoral dissertation in American studies, ethnic studies, or women's studies.<ref name = "theasa"/>

==Personal life== Gabriel married Mary Christine Davis in 1917 and they had three children together.<ref name = ":1"/>

==Selected publications== The following is a list of selected publications:<ref>{{cite web |title=Gabriel, Ralph Henry |url=https://www.worldcat.org/search?qt=worldcat_org_all&q=Gabriel%2C+Ralph+Henry |website=worldcat.org |access-date=September 6, 2019}}</ref> *''Elias Boudinot, Cherokee & his America'' (1941) *''The Rise of American Democracy'' (1951) *''The course of American democratic thought: an intellectual history since 1815'' (1956) *''Traditional values in American life'' (1960) *''American values: continuity and change'' (1974)

== References == {{Reflist}}

== External links ==

* Ralph Henry Gabriel papers (MS 228). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library. [http://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/mssa.ms.0228] {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gabriel, Ralph Henry}} Category:1890 births Category:1987 deaths Category:Historians from New York (state) Category:Military personnel from New York (state) Category:People from Schuyler County, New York Category:Yale University faculty Category:Yale University alumni Category:Yale Sterling Professors Category:20th-century American historians Category:American male non-fiction writers Category:20th-century American male writers