Herman Vandenburg Ames (; August 7, 1865 – February 7, 1935) was an American legal historian, archivist, and professor of United States constitutional history at the University of Pennsylvania and, from 1907 to 1928, dean of its graduate school. His 1897 monograph, The Proposed Amendments to the Constitution of the United States During the First Century of Its History, was a landmark work in American constitutional history. Other works by Ames included John C. Calhoun and the Secession Movement of 1850, Slavery and the Union 1845–1861, and The X.Y.Z. Letters, the latter of which he authored with John Bach McMaster. Among his notable students were Ezra Pound, John Musser, and Herbert Eugene Bolton. A member of the Ames family, Herman Ames was born in Massachusetts and educated at Amherst College. He received his doctorate from Harvard University, where he was the Ozias Goodwin Memorial Fellow in Constitutional and International Law, and studied under Albert Bushnell Hart. Like Hart, Ames spent time in Europe learning German historical methodology and was influenced in his own research by its approach. He was a driving force behind the establishment of the Pennsylvania State Archives and helped guide the widespread establishment of government archives throughout the United States. His papers are housed at the University of Pennsylvania's University Archives. Early life Childhood and family Herman Ames was born in Lancaster, Massachusetts, in 1865 to Marcus Ames and Jane Angeline Ames (née Vandenburg). Ames' father, Marcus, was educated at Philips Andover Academy, where he graduated as valedictorian before studying medicine at Harvard Medical School. He was ordained in 1854, becoming in the words of David Ford a "brilliant, fervent, and impressive" Congregational preacher who ministered throughout Massachusetts, later serving as superintendent of the Lancaster Industrial School for Girls and chaplain of Rhode Island's asylum, prison, workhouse, and almshouse. Marcus Ames' parents—Herman Ames' paternal grandparents—were Azel Ames and Mercy Ames (née Hatch). Herman Ames' great grandfather, Job Ames, served in the Massachusetts Militia during the American Revolution. The Ames family descended from William Ames, who immigrated to the Province of Massachusetts Bay from the town of Bruton, England, in 1641. The family's surname may have been a corruption of the name Amyas (meaning "merchant of Amiens"). In the 16th century Amyas was frequently confused with Ames. Education Ames was educated at the Mowry and Goff School in Providence, Rhode Island. After graduating, he enrolled at Brown University