Ray Allen Billington

{{Infobox academic|discipline=history|main_interests=American frontier|known_for=defender of the "Frontier Thesis"}}

Ray Allen Billington (September 28, 1903 in Bay City, Michigan – March 7, 1981 in San Marino, California) was an American historian who researched the history of the American frontier and the American West, becoming one of the leading defenders of Frederick Jackson Turner's "Frontier Thesis" from the 1950s to the 1970s,{{cite journal|last1=Billington|first1=Ray Allen|title=The Frontier and I|journal=Western Historical Quarterly|date=January 1970|volume=1|issue=1|pages=4–20|jstor=967401|doi=10.2307/967401}}{{cite journal|last1=Ridge|first1=Martin|title=Frederick Jackson Turner, Ray Allen Billington, and American Frontier History|journal=Western Historical Quarterly|date=January 1988|volume=19|issue=1|pages=4–20|jstor=969790|doi=10.2307/969790}} expanding the field of the history of the American West. He was a co-founder of the Western History Association in 1961.{{cite journal|last1=Lamar|first1=Howard R.|title=Much to Celebrate: The Western History Association's Twenty-Fifth Birthday|journal=Western Historical Quarterly|date=October 1986|volume=17|issue=4|pages=397–416|jstor=969016|doi=10.2307/969016}}

Career

Billington studied at the University of Michigan, but was expelled (for a student prank). He held a Ph.B. from the University of Wisconsin (1926), an M.A. from the University of Michigan (1927), a Ph.D. from Harvard University (1933), and an M.A. from Oxford University (1953). He also received nine honorary degrees. He taught at Clark University, Smith College, Northwestern University, and served as Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Visiting Professor of American History at Oxford University (1953–54). He retired from his teaching career in 1964 and became the Senior Research Associate at the Huntington Library.{{Cite journal |last=Ridge |first=Martin |date=July 1981 |title=Ray Allen Billington (1903–1981) |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3556586 |journal=Western Historical Quarterly |volume=12 |issue=3 |page=246 |doi=10.1093/whq/12.3.244 |jstor=3556586 }}

Personal life

He married Mabel R. Crotty; they had two children, Anne and Allen.[https://www.jstor.org/pss/25080893 "Memoirs", Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 1981 Richard W. Leopold]{{cite news|last1=Gaiter|first1=Dorothy J.|title=Ray Billington, Chronicler of Nation's Move West|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/03/08/obituaries/ray-billington-chronicler-of-nation-s-move-west.html|access-date=29 August 2014|work=New York Times|date=March 8, 1981}}

Awards

Spur Award from the Western Writers of America
1974 Bancroft Prize for Frederick Jackson Turner: Historian, Teacher, Scholar, Oxford University Press, 1973{{cite web|title=The Bancroft Prizes: Previous Awards|url=http://library.columbia.edu/about/awards/bancroft/previous_awards.html|website=Columbia University Libraries|access-date=29 August 2014}}

Legacy

To honor their former president and longtime member, the Organization of American Historians created the Ray Allen Billington Prize for the best book in American frontier history, "which is defined broadly to include the pioneer periods of all geographical areas, and comparisons between American frontiers and others."{{cite web|title=Ray Allen Billington Prize|url=http://www.oah.org/programs/awards/ray-allen-billington-prize/|website=Organization of American Historians|access-date=29 August 2014}} The prize has been awarded biennially since 1981, except for in 1997.

In the 1970s, Billington served as a trustee of Occidental College in Los Angeles, CA and developed an affection for the school. With funding from his estate, the college's Department of History now hosts the Ray Allen Billington Visiting Professor in U.S. History, given to honor "the tradition of fine teacher/scholars at American liberal arts colleges."{{cite web|title=Billington|url=http://www.oxy.edu/history/billington|website=Occidental College Department of History|publisher=Occidental College|access-date=29 August 2014}} The first award was given for the 1999–2000 academic year. The Department has also established a Billington Student Research Fellowship to support undergraduate history students at Occidental conducting primary source research.{{cite web|title=Billington Student Research Fellowship|url=http://www.oxy.edu/history/billington/billington-student-research-fellowships|website=Occidental College Department of History|publisher=Occidental College|access-date=29 August 2014}}

Works

The Protestant Crusade 1800–1860: A Study of the Origins of American Nativism (1938) (reissue Rinehart, 1952) [https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Protestant_Crusade_1800_1860.html?id=kb6DPgAACAAJ excerpt]; [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.214564 online]
{{cite book| title=Westward Expansion: A History of the American Frontier | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YoV-k7VcyZ0C |author=Ray Allen Billington |author2=Martin Ridge| publisher=UNM Press| year= 2001| isbn= 978-0-8263-1981-4 }} (5th edition; 1st edition 1949)
{{cite book| title=American History After 1865| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j5cUI9NPL6YC| publisher=Rowman & Littlefield| year= 1975| isbn= 978-0-8226-0026-8 }} (1st ed. 1950) [https://books.google.com/books?id=X9FWZLCfi4gC&lr=&hl=fr online edition]
The Far Western Frontier Harper, 1956 [https://archive.org/details/farwesternfronti00bill online edition]
[http://www.americanheritage.com/content/how-frontier-shaped-american-character "How The Frontier Shaped The American Character"], American Heritage Magazine, April 1958 [https://books.google.com/books/about/How_the_Frontier_Shaped_the_American_Cha.html?id=lh70ngEACAAJ online edition]
Westward Movement in the United States Van Nostrand, 1959
[https://web.archive.org/web/20090107035139/http://www.instituteforpr.org/files/uploads/Billington_Address.pdf "Words That Won the West", Lecture to the Public Relations Society of America, San Francisco, California, November 18, 1963] [https://books.google.com/books/about/Words_that_won_the_West_1830_1850.html?id=DNI4AAAAIAAJ online edition]
America's Frontier Heritage Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1963 (reprint University of New Mexico Press, 1993) [https://archive.org/details/americasfrontier00bill online edition]
The Frontier Thesis: Valid Interpretation of American History? (editor), R. E. Krieger Pub. Co., 1966; 1977 [https://archive.org/details/frontierthesisva00bill online edition]
The American Frontier Thesis: Attack and Defense 1966 [https://archive.org/details/americanfrontier0000bill online edition]
The Genesis of the Frontier Thesis (1971)
Frederick Jackson Turner: Historian, Scholar, Teacher. Oxford University Press, 1973 [https://archive.org/details/frederickjackson00raya online edition]
America's Frontier Culture: Three Essays, 1977 [https://archive.org/details/americasfrontier0000bill_q1x7 online edition]
Limericks, Historical and Hysterical, 1981 [https://archive.org/details/limerickshistori0000bill online edition]
Land of Savagery, Land of Promise: The European Image of the American Frontier in the Nineteenth Century, 1981 [https://books.google.com/books/about/Land_of_Savagery_Land_of_Promise.html?id=BBdSAQAAIAAJ online edition]

References

External links

{{Find a Grave|7573636}}
[http://www.americanheritage.com/users/ray-allen-billington Biographical sketch and list of articles by Ray Allen Billington] in American Heritage Magazine.
{{cite book| chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ld_yGLoFxwgC&q=Ray+Allen+Billington&pg=PA277| last1=Limerick|first1=Patricia Nelson| chapter=Persistent Traits and Persistent Historian: The American Frontier and Ray Allen Billington| title=Writing Western history: essays on major Western historians| editor=Richard W. Etulain| publisher=University of Nevada Press| orig-date=1991| year= 2002| isbn=978-0-87417-517-2 }}
{{cite web|title=Ray Allen Billington|url=https://www.jstor.org/action/doBasicSearch?Query=au%3A%22Ray+Allen+Billington%22|publisher=}}

Category:People from Bay City, Michigan

Category:University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni

Category:Harvard University alumni

Category:1903 births

Category:1981 deaths

Category:Clark University faculty

Category:Smith College faculty

Category:Northwestern University faculty

Category:Historians of the United States

Category:Historians of the American West

Category:20th-century American historians

Category:American male non-fiction writers