Justin Winsor

Justin Winsor
Justin Winsor c. 1885
Born	January 2, 1831 Boston, Massachusetts
Died	October 22, 1897(1897-10-22) (aged 66) Cambridge, Massachusetts
Occupation	Librarian, Historian, Author
Signature

Justin Winsor (January 2, 1831 – October 22, 1897) was a prominent American writer, librarian, and historian. His historical work had strong bibliographical and cartographical elements. He was an authority on the early history of North America. His self-confidence, energy and congeniality augmented his entrepreneurial skills and were well received by his peers, who elected him as the first president of the American Library Association.

Winsor was born in Boston, Massachusetts, son of Nathaniel Winsor III (1806-c.1890) and Ann Thomas Howland Winsor (1809–1893). His father was a shipping merchant who had established the "Winsor Line," one of the first regular lines of clipperships between Boston and San Francisco. Shortly before his birth, his parents had recently moved to Boston from Duxbury, Massachusetts where the Winsor family had been involved in shipbuilding for generations. His grandfather's home, the Nathaniel Winsor, Jr. House, is now the headquarters of the Duxbury Rural and Historical Society. Justin Winsor graduated from the Boston Latin School. He entered Harvard, but left in his senior year and never finished his education at the university. He then studied in Paris and Heidelberg. He died in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

In 1855, Winsor married Caroline Tufts Barker (1830–1911), daughter of Ebenezer and Sally Fuller Barker of Charlestown, Massachusetts. They had two children, Mary (b. 1860) who died in infancy, and Constance (c. 1861-1895).

Justin Winsor published his first book, A History of the Town of Duxbury (1849), during his first year at Harvard. He contributed to many periodicals, and, in addition to editing many smaller works, he edited some of the most important historical works of the 19th century, among them: Reader’s Handbook of American History (1879), The Memorial History of Boston (4 vols., 1880–1881) and the Narrative and Critical History of America (8 vols., 1884–1889). The latter was a standard history reference for decades.