Wallace Notestein

{{Short description|American historian}} {{Infobox academic | honorific_prefix =  | name = Wallace Notestein | honorific_suffix = | image = Wallace Notestein in 1919.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = Notestein in 1919 | native_name = | native_name_lang = | birth_name =  | birth_date = {{birth date|1878|12|16}} | birth_place = Wooster, Ohio, US | death_date = {{death date and age|1969|02|02|1878|12|16}} | death_place = New Haven, Connecticut, US | nationality = | citizenship = | other_names = | occupation = | period = | known_for = | title = | boards =  | spouse = {{married|Ada Comstock|1943}} | partner = | children = | parents = | relatives = | awards =  | website = | education =BA, 1900, College of Wooster <br> MA, 1903, PhD, 1908, Yale University | alma_mater =  | thesis_title = A history of witchcraft in England from 1558 to 1718 | thesis_url = | thesis_year = 1908 | school_tradition = | doctoral_advisor = | academic_advisors = | influences =  | era = | discipline =  | sub_discipline =  | workplaces =Yale University <br> Cornell University <br> University of Minnesota <br> University of Kansas | doctoral_students =  | notable_students =  | main_interests = | notable_works = | notable_ideas = | influenced =  | signature = | signature_alt = | signature_size = | footnotes = }} '''Wallace Notestein''' (December 16, 1878 – February 2, 1969) was an American historian and Sterling Professor of English History at Yale University from 1928 to 1947. He was married to women's educational pioneer Ada Comstock.

He was a member of the American Commission to Negotiate Peace in Europe after World War I.

==Early life== Notestein was born on Monday, December 16, 1878, in Wooster, Ohio, to parents Jonas O. and Margaret (née Wallace) Notestein.<ref name = "archives Yale">{{cite web |title=Wallace Notestein papers |url=https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/12/resources/4438 |website=archives.yale.edu |accessdate=October 15, 2020}}</ref> He was born into an academic family. His father was professor of Latin Language and Literature at The College of Wooster.<ref name=":0" /> His uncles were professors and his younger sister Lucy Lilian Notestein became a historian.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Dettling |first1=James |title=Notestein Reads Every Note On Wooster College |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/61160662/wallace-notestein/ |accessdate=October 15, 2020 |publisher=The Akron Beacon Journal |date=May 16, 1971|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> Notestein graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1900 from The College of Wooster. In 1903 and 1908 he received his Master of Arts degree and Ph.D., respectively, from Yale University.<ref name=":0" />

==Career== Notestein joined the faculty of history at the University of Kansas from 1905 until 1907 when he left to teach at the University of Minnesota.<ref name = "archives Yale"/> During his lengthy tenure in Minnesota, he published his first book titled ''A History of Witchcraft in England from 1558 to 1718'' through the American Historical Association. It was a chronological survey of Witchcraft in early modern Britain.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Schumacher |first1=G.F.B. |title=Review of A History of Witchcraft in England from 1558 to 1718. |journal=The American Historical Review |date=October 1912 |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=129–130 |doi=10.1086/ahr/18.1.129 |url=https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article-abstract/18/1/129/10703?redirectedFrom=fulltext |accessdate=October 15, 2020|url-access=subscription }}</ref> In 1919, Notestein attended the Paris Peace Conference on World War I, serving as the American Commission to Negotiate Peace specialist on questions relating to Germany.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Historical Documents - Office of the Historian |url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1919Parisv03/d1 |access-date=2025-03-16 |website=history.state.gov}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title="U" Professor Going to Peace Conference |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/36230218/star-tribune/ |accessdate=October 15, 2020 |publisher=Star Tribune |date=January 11, 1919 |location=Minneapolis, Minnesota|via=newspapers.com}}</ref> Upon his return, he accepted the role of Professor of English History at Cornell University.<ref>{{cite news |title=Notestein To Join Cornell History Staff |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/other-articles-clipping-mar-01-1920-2016002/ |accessdate=October 15, 2020 |publisher=The Cornell Daily Sun |date=March 1, 1920|via=newspaperarchive.com}}</ref>

Notestein stayed at Cornell for eight years, during which he was appointed the Goldwin Smith Chair of English History, before leaving to become a Sterling Professor at his alma mater, Yale.<ref>{{cite news |title=Notestein To Leave Cornell; Goes To Yale |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/61165725/wallace-notestein/ |accessdate=October 15, 2020 |publisher=The Ithaca Journal |date=January 21, 1928|via=newspapers.com}}</ref> During his first year at Yale, he was appointed by British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald to serve on a British commission investigating materials for a history of the personnel of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.<ref>{{cite news |title=MacDonald Selects Wallace Notestein For History Task |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/61160379/wallace-notestein/ |accessdate=October 15, 2020 |publisher=The Ithaca Journal |date=October 7, 1929|via=newspapers.com}}</ref> Notestein was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1916.<ref>{{Cite web |title=APS Member History |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Wallace+Notestein&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |access-date=2023-03-23 |website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref> He was later honored by the University of Oxford in 1958 with an honorary Doctor of Letters degree.<ref>{{cite news |title=Oxford U To Honor Yale Professor |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/61160502/wallace-notestein/ |accessdate=October 15, 2020 |publisher=Record-Journal |date=June 28, 1958 |location=Meriden, Connecticut|via=newspapers.com}}</ref> Notestein also received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Yale University in 1951.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1951-06-24 |title=1951 Jun 24, page 16 - Honolulu Advertiser |pages=16 |work=The Honolulu Advertiser |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/115904350/1951-jun-24-page-16-honolulu/ |access-date=2023-01-06}}</ref>

Notestein died on Sunday, February 2, 1969, in New Haven, Connecticut from a heart attack.<ref name=":0">{{cite news |title=Wallace Notestein Dies; Famed Yale Professor |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/61160211/wallace-notestein/ |accessdate=October 15, 2020 |publisher=Hartford Courant |date=February 3, 1969|via=newspapers.com}}</ref>

==Personal life== Notestein married women's educational pioneer and former president of Radcliffe College, Ada Comstock in 1943.<ref>{{cite news |title=ADA L. C0MST0CK WED TO WALLACE NOTESTEIN |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/61160315/wallace-notestein/ |accessdate=October 15, 2020 |publisher=The Indianapolis News |date=June 15, 1943|via=newspapers.com}}</ref>

==Works== *''[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.c046985098&view=1up&seq=5 A History of Witchcraft in England from 1558 to 1718]'' (1911) *''[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=loc.ark:/13960/t9j39fc9b&view=1up&seq=7 Source Problems in English History]'' (1915), co-authored with Albert Beebe White *''[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101066363316&view=1up&seq=3 The Stuart Period: Unsolved Problems]'' (1916), co-authored with Roland G. Usher *''[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015067154222&view=1up&seq=7 Conquest and Kultur: Aims of the Germans in Their Own Words]'' (1918), co-authored with Elmer E. Stoll *''[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo1.ark:/13960/t6nz8rk8m&view=1up&seq=3 Source Problem: The Growth of the Powers of Parliament]'' (1921) *''[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=loc.ark:/13960/t1dj5xt80&view=1up&seq=11 Commons debates for 1629]'' (1921), co-edited with Frances Helen Relf *''[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b4397308&view=1up&seq=7 The Journal of Sir Simonds D'Ewes: From the Beginning of the Long Parliament to the Opening of the Trial of the Earl of Strafford]'' (1923) *''[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.32106001193843&view=1up&seq=5 The Winning Initiative by the House of Commons]'' (1924) *''The Winning of the Initiative by the House of Commons'' (1926) *''English Folk: A Book of Characters'' (1938) *''The Scot in History: A Study of the Interplay of Character and History'' (1946) *''[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015002895806&view=1up&seq=5 The English People on the Eve of Colonization, 1603–1630]'' (1954) *''[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b3711233&view=1up&seq=9 Four Worthies: John Chamberlain, Anne Clifford, John Taylor, Oliver Heywood]'' (1957) *''The House of Commons, 1604–1610'' (1971)

==References== {{Reflist}}

==Further reading== *Theodore K. Rabb, 'Parliament and Society in Early Stuart England: The Legacy of Wallace Notestein', ''The American Historical Review'', '''77''' (1972): 705–714. JSTOR [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1870347 1870347].

==External links== * {{Gutenberg author | id=35282}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Wallace Notestein}} * {{Librivox author|id=18516}} * Wallace Notestein papers (MS 544). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library. [http://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/mssa.ms.0544] * [https://openworks.wooster.edu/notestein/ English Historical Library of Wallace Notestein] at The College of Wooster * [https://archives.lib.umn.edu/repositories/14/resources/1584 University Archives Information Files Collection (ua1158)]. Biographical Files. Archives and Special Collections, Elmer L. Andersen Library, University of Minnesota.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Notestein, Wallace}} Category:1878 births Category:1969 deaths Category:American historians Category:Yale University faculty Category:Cornell University faculty Category:University of Minnesota faculty Category:University of Kansas faculty Category:Yale Sterling Professors Category:Corresponding fellows of the British Academy Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society