Brantz Mayer

Brantz Mayer (September 27, 1809 – February 23, 1879) was an American writer, lawyer, and historian. In 1844, he founded the Maryland Historical Society, which is today the oldest cultural institution in the U.S. state of Maryland.

Early life Brantz Mayer was born in 1809 in Baltimore, Maryland, to Christian Mayer and Anna Katherina Baum Mayer. His father, Christian, had emigrated from Germany to the United States in 1784 along with a friend, Lewis Brantz. The two formed a business partnership that would last for decades, trading as far away as with the East Indies and Mexico.

Christian Mayer's first son was lawyer Charles F. Mayer. He named his second son, Brantz, after his friend and business partner. Childless himself, Lewis Brantz would eventually name the younger Mayer as his heir. He practiced law from 1832 until 1841, when he was appointed secretary of legation to Mexico, where he remained a year, and on his return edited for a short time the Baltimore American newspaper. Brantz Mayer was again secretary of the United States legation to Mexico in 1842 and 1843.

During the American Civil War, Mayer was an active Unionist, and in 1861 was appointed president of the Maryland Union State general committee, and did much to aid the Union cause. Journal of Charles Carroll of Carrollton During his Visit to Canada in 1776, As One of the Commissioners from Congress; With A Memoir and Notes.(1845 & 1876)

Family His nephew Francis Blackwell Mayer was a noted artist. Another nephew, Alfred M. Mayer, brother of Francis, was a noted physicist.