Howard Roberts Lamar

Howard Lamar died February 22, 2023. Sterling Professor Emeritus of History at Yale, Lamar was a giant in the field of American western history and taught generations of scholars over his long career. His own books include a monumental reference work, The Reader’s Encyclopedia of the American West (1977; thoroughly revised and reissued in 1998 as The New Encyclopedia of the American West). His formative influence in the field is reflected in the ongoing projects that bear his name: Yale’s Howard R. Lamar Center for the Study of Frontiers and Borders, and the Lamar Series in Western History, published by Yale University Press. Lamar served as dean of Yale College from 1979 to 1985 and as president from 1992 to 1993.