Albert Bushnell Hart, Mercer Co. PA

Marker Text: Distinguished scholar and historian, Harvard graduate and member of its faculty for sixty years, was born nearby, July 1, 1854, and lived here six years. He died July 16, 1943, at Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Location: On PA Route 258 at Clark near the intersection with Routes 18 and 258, south of the Route 18 causeway across Shenango Reservoir.   Marker Dedicated: 4/30/1948 

   I have a number of appropriate marker photos I could have started this blog, but somehow it seemed appropriate to start this blog with a marker about an historian. This Pennsylvania Historical Road Marker is about Albert Bushnell Hart. Dr. Hart was described by Samuel Eliot Morison as “The Grand Old Man” of American history. Albert Hart was one of the first generation of professionally trained historians in the United States. During his life he authored about 100 historical volumes in numerous books and edited historical collections, such as, the 28 Volume, “American Nation” series (1903-1918).

   Albert Bushnell Hart was born at Clarksville, in Mercer County PA on July 1, 1854 near where this marker is located. The original town of Clarksville no longer exists after being moved to higher ground during construction of Shenango Dam. The original town location is now mostly under water and the relocated town is now called Clark. The marker is located across the road on Route 258 from Tara, a Country Inn and their dining area parking lot.

   Albert Hart graduated from Harvard in 1880 and was classmate and friend to Theodore Roosevelt. In 1883, he received his Ph.D. from the University of Freiburg in Germany and in the same year joined the faculty at Harvard where he continued to teach as a professor of government until his retirement in 1926.

   Some of the other writings of Albert B. Hart were the books Formation of the Union (1892), Samuel Portland Chase (1899), Essentials of American History (1905), and Slavery and Abolition (1906). He was an editor of the American Historical Review for fourteen years, and president of both the American Historical Association (AHA) and the American Political Science Association. Hart was editor of the American Year Book, 1926-1932. He edited a five-volume history of Massachusetts in 1927-1930, and worked as the official historian of the George Washington bicentennial commission in the 1920s and 1930s.