James Alexander Robertson

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the 19th-century New Zealand government administrator and superintendent of Southland Province, see
James Alexander Robertson Menzies
.
James Alexander Robertson
Born(1873-08-19)August 19, 1873
Corry, Pennsylvania
DiedMarch 20, 1939(1939-03-20) (aged 65)
Annapolis, Maryland
Alma materWestern Reserve University
Occupation(s)Historian, archivist
Known forThe Philippine Islands, 1493–1898

James Alexander Robertson (August 19, 1873 – March 20, 1939) was an American academic

Viceroyalty of New Spain
.

Life

James Alexander Robertson was born 1873 in

Verulam, Ontario, near Peterborough. His mother, Elizabeth Borrowman Robertson, had emigrated to Canada from her native Scotland as a child.[2]

Robertson's mother died when he was seven. Three years later he and his family moved to

Cleveland, Ohio, where James completed his secondary education.[2]

In 1892 he enrolled for graduate studies at Western Reserve University's Adelbert College.[3] He majored in the study of Romance languages, specializing in Old French, and was awarded his Bachelor of Philosophy degree from Western Reserve in 1896.[4]

In 1902 Robertson became involved in the compilation of a massive multivolume work on the history of the Philippines, initially called The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803.[5]

On the completion of the Philippine Islands project Robertson went to the

library science as a discipline for instruction at the University of the Philippines
.

Robertson returned to the U.S. and Washington in 1917, taking up a position with the federal Department of Commerce. In 1918 Robertson was the founding editor of the

Hispanic American Historical Review, an academic journal
devoted to Latin American and Hispanic history. He remained the journal's editor-in-chief until his death.

In 1923 he gained a position as professor at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida, and lectured there for the next ten years. In 1935 he moved to Annapolis, Maryland, as the archivist for the Maryland State Archives' Hall of Records.

Robertson died three years later on March 20, 1939, in Annapolis.

Notes

  1. ^ Shavit (1990, p.424); Wilgus (1970, p.3)
  2. ^ a b Wilgus (1970, p.3)
  3. ^ Cano (2008)
  4. ^ Cano (2008); Shavit (1990, p.424); Wilgus (1970, p.3)
  5. The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898
    .

References

  • Cano, Glòria (February 2008). "Evidence for the deliberate distortion of the Spanish Philippine colonial historical record in The Philippine Islands 1493–1898".
    S2CID 159759508
    .
  • Hill, Roscoe R. (May 1939). "Dr. James Alexander Robertson 1873-1939".
    OCLC 1752092
    .
  • Shavit, David (1990). The United States in Asia: a historical dictionary. Westport, CT:
    OCLC 21522840
    .
  • Wilgus, A. Curtis (1970) [1942]. "The life of James Alexander Robertson". In A. Curtis Wilgus (ed.). Hispanic American Essays: A Memorial to James Alexander Robertson. Essay index reprint series (Reprint of University of North Carolina Press original ed.). Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press.
    OCLC 122617
    .

External links

Wikisource has original works by or about:
James Alexander Robertson
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