author
Max Farrand
1869–1945
A leading historian of early America, he is best remembered for making the Constitutional Convention easier to study through his landmark edition of its records. He also helped shape the Huntington Library in its early years as its first director.
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About the author
Born in Newark, New Jersey, on March 29, 1869, Max Farrand became an American historian and university professor whose work focused on colonial America and the founding era. He studied at Princeton, earning both his bachelor's degree and Ph.D., and went on to teach at Wesleyan, Stanford, Cornell, and Yale.
Farrand is especially known for editing The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, a foundational resource for anyone studying the making of the U.S. Constitution. His scholarship helped bring order and accessibility to a complicated body of historical material, and his books remained influential for generations of readers and researchers.
In 1927, he became the first director of the Huntington Library, where he guided the institution during its formative years until 1941. He died on June 17, 1945, and is still remembered as an important interpreter of America’s early history.