Max Farrand

Max Farrand
Max Farrand in 1931
Farrand in 1931
1st Director of the Huntington Library
In office
October 1, 1927 – June 30, 1941
Succeeded byWallace Sterling
Personal details
Born(1869-03-29)March 29, 1869
Newark, New Jersey
DiedJune 17, 1945(1945-06-17) (aged 76)
Bar Harbor, Maine
Spouse
​
(m. 1913)​
RelativesLivingston Farrand (brother)
EducationPrinceton University
OccupationHistorian
Known for
First director of the Huntington Library

Max Farrand (March 29, 1869 – June 17, 1945) was an American historian and university professor. Farrand served as the first director of the Huntington Library.

Early life

He was born in Newark, New Jersey, United States. He graduated from Princeton with a Bachelors of Arts in 1892 and a PhD in 1896.

Career

From 1908 to 1925, he was a professor of history at Yale University. Prior to his position at Yale, Farrand also taught at Wesleyan University, Stanford University, and Cornell University. Farrand's area of expertise was constitutional history. Farrand served as director of the Commonwealth Fund, founded in 1918 by Anna M. Harkness.

Farrand assisted Henry E. Huntington in establishing the Huntington Library, located on the historic Rancho Huerta de Cuati' in San Marino, California. Following Huntington's death in 1927, Farrand became the library's first director, serving until 1941.

In 1921, Farrand was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was elected in 1926 a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1928.

In 1940, Farrand, as President of the American Historical Society delivered an address describing his views on history.

Farrand's final work, an examination of the letters of Benjamin Franklin, was published posthumously in 1949.

Family

In 1913, Farrand married the landscape architect Beatrix Farrand. They remodeled her family's home, Reef Point Estate in Bar Harbor, Maine, where they spent their summers. They had no children. Farrand's brother was the researcher Livingston Farrand.

Death and legacy

The Farrands retired to Reef Point estate in Bar Harbor, which they planned to establish as an independent and self-perpetuating educational corporation.[citation needed] Max Farrand died in 1945 before this could be accomplished. After a wildfire destroyed part of the property in 1955, Beatrix demolished the main house and uprooted the garden. She also donated their extensive library and herbarium specimens to the University of California at Berkeley. John D. Rockefeller purchasing the azaleas from the uprooted gardens for his own Asticou Azalea Garden in Northeast Harbor, Maine.

The Farrands are both buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in New York City.

During the Bicentennial Celebrations, James Hutson, head of the Manuscripts Division of the Library of Congress, edited a revised edition of Farrand's four volume, The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787 (Yale University Press, 1976).

Publications

Citations

  1. 1 2 "Beatrix Farrand at The Huntington". The Huntington. Retrieved 2025-04-26.
  2. ↑ "Farrand (Max) Papers". oac.cdlib.org. Retrieved 2025-04-26.
  3. ↑ "Huntington To Help Research". Los Angeles Times. February 28, 1927. p. 17. Dr. Farrand is internationally known for his researches in American history, which have been published in a number of books and in various historical journals. He recently served as first Research Associate of the Huntington Library and prepared the plan for research which has just been adopted. He will enter upon his duties next October 1.
  4. ↑ Stevens, Otheman (March 1, 1927). "Huntington Foundation Head Named: Dr. Max Farrand, Formerly of Yale, to Be in Charge; Large Endowment Added". Los Angeles Examiner. p. 21 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection. A change that will add to the potency in scholarly results of the Huntington Library, art gallery and botanical garden has been announced in the appointment of Dr. Max Farrand to be in charge of the entire Foundation.
  5. ↑ "New Director Arrives". Los Angeles Times. October 9, 1927. p. 78. Dr. Max Farrand, formerly professor of history at Yale University and a noted scholar, has just arrived in Pasadena after a summer spent in Europe, to assume his new duties as director of research at the Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery. Dr. Farrand said today that it will be some time before the alterations on the Huntington residence will be completed. The former home of the late Mr. Huntington is being remodeled for museum use, and the public will be admitted when the work is completed. It was originally expected that this work would be finished this month.
  6. ↑ "Dr. Farrand to Leave Library". Los Angeles Times. March 7, 1941. p. 2. Dr. Max Farrand, director of the Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery for the last 14 years, has resigned effective July 1, the board of trustees announced yesterday. Accepting the resignation with regret, the trustees invited Dr. Farrand to continue his connection with the library as a research associate.
  7. ↑ "Max Farrand". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. 2023-02-09. Retrieved 2023-07-25.
  8. ↑ "Historic Fellows". American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
  9. ↑ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 2023-07-25.
  10. ↑ "Max Farrand – AHA".
  11. ↑ Vernor W. Crane, Max Farrand and Benjamin Franklin's Memoirs, Modern Philology Vol 47, no. 2 (November, 1949) p. 127
  12. ↑ Beatrix Farrand profile, beatrixfarrandsociety.org; accessed September 27, 2015.
  13. ↑ Hannan, Caryn (2008-01-01). New Jersey Biographical Dictionary. State History Publications. ISBN 978-1-878592-45-3.
  14. ↑ "Beatrix Farrand Society". www.beatrixfarrandsociety.org.
  15. ↑ Nolan, David, Beatrix. The Gardening Life of Beatrix Farrand, 1872–1959. (Viking, Penguin Group,1995), p. 90. ISBN 978-0-670-83217-0
  16. ↑ "Supplement to Max Farrand's Records of the Federal Convention of 1787". Yale University Press. Retrieved 2022-09-26.

General and cited references