Philip Alexander Bruce

Infobox writer
name = Philip Alexander Bruce
birthdate = birth date|1856|3|7
birthplace =
deathdate = death date and age|1933|8|16|1856|3|7
deathplace = Charlottesville, VA, USA
occupation = Historian
nationality = American
period = 1889 - 1933
subject = American History, Southern History, Virginian History

Philip Alexander Bruce (March 71856 - August 161933)cite web |url=http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSvcid=39000&GRid=18744480& |title=Philip Alexander Bruce |accessdate=2008-03-20] was an American historian who specialized in the history of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Author of over a dozen volumes of history, Bruce's scope ranged from the first Virginia settlements to the early 20th century. He is notable for the first complete history of the University of Virginia, descriptions of the lives of the original settlers of Virginia, and for his insights into Thomas Jefferson's wide-ranging intellect.

Bruce was born into a plantation family in Charlotte County, Virginia; his younger brother was William Cabell Bruce, later a US Senator from Maryland. Philip studied literature and history at the University of Virginia, graduating in 1876; he went on to get an LL.B. from Harvard University in 1879.cite news
url=http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20C17F6345A16738DDDA00994D0405B838FF1D3&scp=6&sq=%22philip+alexander+bruce%22&st=p
title=Philip A. Bruce, 77, Historian, Is Dead
work=New York Times
pages=11
date=1933-08-19 ]

Bruce began a long career as a published historian in 1889 with the publication of "The Plantation Negro as a Freeman" cite book |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=DZRHAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:philip+inauthor:alexander+inauthor:bruce&lr=&as_brr=0 |title=The Plantation Negro as a Freeman |last=Bruce |first=Philip Alexander |year=1889 |publisher=G. P. Putnam's Sons |location=New York |series=Questions of the Day |volume=LVII ] . His most notable research came with a series of three works on seventeenth century Virginia, covering the economic, social, and institutional frameworks of the first Virginia settlers, published between 1896 and 1910.

Bruce was the corresponding secretary of the Virginia Historical Society.cite news
url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9A04EEDD143BEE33A25752C1A9649C94679ED7CF&scp=5&sq=%22philip+a.+bruce%22&st=p
title=In Memory of Gilbert Stuart; The Painter's Grave in Boston to be Suit- ably Marked Soon -- The Proposed National Monument
work=New York Times
pages=5
date=1896-02-11] He was awarded honorary doctorates by both The College of William and Marycite web
url=http://scrc.swem.wm.edu/wiki/index.php/Honorary_degree_recipients#1900
title=Honorary Degree Recipients
work=Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) Wiki at the College of William and Mary
accessdate=2008-03-20] and Washington and Lee University.cite web
url=http://registrar.wlu.edu/honors/hondegs.htm
title=Washington and Lee University: Honorary Degrees Conferred, by Date of Award
accessdate=2008-03-21]

In the last decade of his life, Bruce authored a five-volume history of the first hundred years of the University of Virginia, which is credited for expanding the historical perspective on the talents of Thomas Jefferson,cite news
url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=990DE5D7103FE432A25753C3A9679C946095D6CF
title=New Light on Jefferson: Remarkable Versatility of President Shown by Virginia Researchers
work=New York Times
pages=XX5
date=1921-01-30] and co-authored a five-volume history of the Commonwealth of Virginia. He died after a long illness at his home near Charlottesville.cite journal
url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,930104-2,00.html
title=Milestones
journal=Time
date=1933-08-28] He is remembered for attempts to raise the consciousness of Northern readers to Virginia’s contributions to the history of the United States through a series of letters to the "New York Times" on such topics as the claim of Virginia's House of Burgesses as the second elected legislature after the British Parliamentcite news
url=http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50612F63F5E10728DDDAE0A94D9405B898EF1D3&scp=5&sq=%22philip+alexander+bruce%22&st=p
title=A Protest from the South; New England Has No Monopoly of This Country's Early Historical Events; Burgesses Convened First Elective System in Virginia
work=New York Times
last=Bruce
first=Philip Alexander
pages=E5
date=1929-01-27] and the importance of Jamestown as the first permanent English settlement in the Americas.cite news
url=http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9A03EED6173BE633A25752C0A96F9C946796D6CF
title=The Virginia Colony (letter)
last=Bruce
first=Philip Alexander
work=New York Times
pages=8
date=1916-09-01
format=PDF]

Published Works

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* citation |last=Bruce |first=Philip Alexander |contribution=Edgar Allan Poe |contribution-url=http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=YxMTAAAAIAAJ&dq=%22masterpieces+of+the+southern+poets%22&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=LzGD1jwzs9&sig=fGBdp3VLdDey2Hf9nmt2Xa_xFo4#PPA30,M1
url=http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=YxMTAAAAIAAJ&dq=%22masterpieces+of+the+southern+poets%22&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=LzGD1jwzs9&sig=fGBdp3VLdDey2Hf9nmt2Xa_xFo4#PPA3,M1
title=Masterpieces of the Southern Poets |editor-last=Neale |editor-first=Walter |location=New York |publisher=Neale Publishing Company |year=1912
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External links

* [http://vip.lib.virginia.edu:8080/cocoon/vivaead/published/uva-sc/viu03278.document A Guide to the Philip Alexander Bruce Papers 1871-1933]
* [http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22Bruce%2C%20Philip%20Alexander%2C%201856-1933%22 Works of Philip Alexander Bruce at the Internet Archive]

References