Oliver Wendell Holmes

Oliver Wendell Holmes (February 2, 1902 – November 25, 1981) was an American archivist and historian, who served as executive director of the National Historical Publications Commission from 1961 to 1971.

Background Holmes was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota to Swedish-born parents, and was raised on a farm in the southeastern part of the state. In 1922, he received his B.A. from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. He received a Ph.D. in history at Columbia University in 1956.

Career Holmes began working for the National Archives when it was founded in 1935. In 1978, Howard University Press published his book, Indian-Related Records in the National Archives and their Use.

He was a founding member of the Potomac Corral of Westerners and a member of the Western History Association, the Columbia Historical Society (now the Historical Society of Washington, D.C.), and the Cosmos Club.

Honors Holmes won the Waldo Gifford Leland Prize for his presidential address for the Society of American Archivists. In 1979, SSA created the Holmes Fund in his honor and to enable foreign archivists to come to U.S. repositories. In 1980, the Western History Association gave his an Award of Merit, for "his important contributions to the field."

Personal Holmes was married to the former Dorothy Behner, who predeceased six months before him.