Adams, Ephraim Douglass, 1865-1930

American historian; director of the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, 1919-1925.

Ephraim Adams was professor of American history at Stanford University, 1902-1930, and head of the Department of History, 1908-1922.

Biographical Note

Ephraim Douglass Adams was born in Decorah, Iowa, on December 18, 1865. Adams attended Grinnell College and graduated from the University of Michigan in 1887, receiving a doctorate in 1890. He became principal of the high school in McGregor, Iowa, in 1887-88, and after his graduate work he served in Washington on the staff of the Eleventh Census, 1890-91. He then joined the history department of the University of Kansas, and eventually became professor of European History, resigning to accept an appointment at Stanford in 1902.

Professor Adams taught European history for his first six years at Stanford, but in 1908, with the reorganization of the department, he took over recent American history, and especially British-American relations. Adams also became head of the department in 1908 and served in that capacity until 1922.

Adams' published works include The Control of the Purse in the United States Government (1894), The Influence of Grenville on Pitt's Foreign Policy (1904), British Interests and Activities in Texas (1910), The Power of Ideals in American History (1913), Great Britain and the American Civil War (1925).

Adams was collaborating with Charles Francis Adams, Jr. on the Life of Charles Adams, Sr., at the time of Charles Francis Adams, Jr.'s death in 1915. When E.D. Adams used some of the research materials gathered for this biography in his work Great Britain and the American Civil War it led to a major controversy (here called the Ford Controvery) with Worthington C. Ford, President of the Massachusetts Historical Society.

When Herbert Hoover assumed the direction of the wide-reaching operation of Belgian relief, Adams called to his attention the importance of preserving all the significant records of his administration. From this correspondence arose the project a War Library. Professor Adams directed the acquisition of materials throughout Europe after the war; these papers formed the original collections in the new Hoover War Library (later renamed the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace).

Adams died of pneumonia on September 1, 1930.

Biographical/Historical note

Adams earned his A.B. (1917) and A.M. (1920) from Stanford University; during World War I he served with the 91st Infantry Division in France and Belgium.

Biographical/Historical Note

American historian; director of the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, 1919-1925.