H. Morse (Henry Morse) Stephens

Born in Edinburgh in 1857 and educated at Haileybury and Balliol College, Oxford, Henry Morse Stephens built his early career in Britain before moving to the United States. He taught at Cornell University and later at the University of California, Berkeley, where he became a leading figure in the history department.

Stephens is especially remembered not just for writing and teaching history, but for helping preserve it. At Berkeley he played an important role in securing the Bancroft Library and in building collections on California history, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, and the First World War.

He was also active in the wider historical profession, serving as president of the American Historical Association. He died in 1919, leaving behind a reputation as a gifted lecturer, scholar, and energetic builder of historical archives.