Introduction
Wallace Notestein (December 16, 1878 – February 3, 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 December 16, 1878, in Wooster, Ohio, to parents Jonas O. and Margaret (Wallace) Notestein. He was born into an academic family; his father and uncles were professors and his younger sister Lucy Lilian Notestein became a historian. Notestein attended the College of Wooster for his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1900 and received his Master's degree and PhD from Yale University.
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. 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. In 1919, Notestein was a member of the American Commission to Negotiate Peace in Europe after World War I. Upon his return, he accepted the role of Professor of English History at Cornell University.
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. 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. He was later honored by the University of Oxford in 1958 with an honorary Doctor of Letters degree.
Notestein died on February 3, 1969, in New Haven, Connecticut from a heart attack.
Personal life
Notestein married women's educational pioneer Ada Comstock in 1943.
Works
- A History of Witchcraft in England from 1558 to 1718 (1911)
- 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)
- The English People on the Eve of Colonization, 1603–1630 (1954)
- Four Worthies: John Chamberlain, Anne Clifford, John Taylor, Oliver Heywood (1957)
- The House of Commons, 1604–1610 (1971)