Brantz Mayer (September 27, 1809 – February 23, 1879) was an American writer, lawyer, and historian. In 1844, he founded the Maryland Historical Society, which is today the oldest cultural institution in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

Early life

Brantz Mayer was born in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the List of United States ...

, to Christian Mayer and Anna Katherina Baum Mayer. Christian Mayer was a German who emigrated in 1784 along with a friend, Lewis Brantz. The two formed a business partnership that would last for decades, trading as far away as with the

East Indies The East Indies (or simply the Indies) is a term used in historical narratives of the Age of Discovery. The ''Indies'' broadly referred to various lands in Eastern world, the East or the Eastern Hemisphere, particularly the islands and mainl ...

and

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. In 1809, Christian Mayer had a second son (the first was lawyer Charles F. Mayer), whom he named after his friend and business partner. Childless himself, Lewis Brantz would eventually name the younger Mayer as his heir.

Education and career

After graduating from St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore, Brantz Mayer sailed for the East, visiting

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

Sumatra Sumatra () is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the list of islands by area, sixth-largest island in the world at 482,286.55 km2 (182,812 mi. ...

, and China, and returned in 1828. He studied law during this long voyage, and on his return home entered law school and was admitted to the bar in 1829. He practiced law from 1832 until 1841, when he was appointed secretary of legation to Mexico, where he remained a year, and on his return edited for a short time the ''

Baltimore American The ''Baltimore News-American'' was a broadsheet newspaper published in downtown Baltimore, Maryland until May 27, 1986. It had a continuous lineage (in various forms) of more than 200 years. For much of the mid-20th century, it had the larges ...

'' newspaper. Brantz Mayer was again secretary of the United States legation to Mexico in 1842 and 1843. When he returned home after his 1843 visit, he published his first work, ''Mexico as it Was, and as it Is'' (Philadelphia, 1844), which was accused of unfairness and gave rise to animated controversy. In the winter of 1844, Mayer founded the Maryland Historical Society, the original object of which was “the collecting the scattered materials of the early history of the state, and for other collateral purposes.” In 1857, he was elected a member of the

American Antiquarian Society The American Antiquarian Society (AAS), located in Worcester, Massachusetts, is both a learned society and a national research library of pre-twentieth-century American history and culture. Founded in 1812, it is the oldest historical society in ...

. During the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

, Mayer was an active Unionist, and in 1861 was appointed president of the Maryland Union State general committee, and did much to aid the Union cause. In 1867, he was appointed a paymaster in the United States army, a post which he resigned in 1875. He contributed to the Maryland Historical Society the ''Journal of Charles Carroll of Carrollton during his Mission to Canada'', and ''Tah-gah-jute, or Logan and Captain Michael Cresap''.

Personal life

On September 27, 1835, Mayer married Mary Griswold, and they had five daughters. Mayer remarried to Cornelia Poor, they had three daughters together. He died on February 23, 1879, at the age of sixty-nine.

Works

Among his works are: *''Mexico as it was and as it is'' (1844; 3d ed., 1847) completed book at Wikisource. *''History of the War between Mexico and the United States'' (1848) *''Mexico, Aztec, Spanish, and Republican'' (1852) *''Calvert and Penn, or the Growth of Civil and Religious Liberty in the United States'' (1852) *
Captain Canot, or Twenty Years of an African Slaver
' (1854) *''Observations on Mexican History and Archaeology'' in ''Smithsonian Contributions'' (1857) *''Mexican Antiquities'' (1858) *''Baltimore: Past and Present. With Biographical Sketches of Its Representative Men'' (1871) *''Journal of Charles Carroll of Carrollton During his Visit to Canada in 1776, As One of the Commissioners from Congress; With A Memoir and Notes.''(1845 & 1876)

Family

His nephew Francis Blackwell Mayer was a noted artist. Another nephew, Alfred M. Mayer, brother of Francis, was a noted physicist. His grandniece,

Mary van Kleeck Mary Abby van Kleeck (June 26, 1883June 8, 1972) was an American social scientist of the 20th century. She was a notable figure in the American labor movement as well as a proponent of scientific management and a planned economy. Of Dutch descen ...

, was a social worker and radical labor activist.

Notes

References

External links

Brantz Mayer papers
held by the University of Maryland * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mayer, Brantz American non-fiction writers Writers from Baltimore 1809 births 1879 deaths Lawyers from Baltimore Mayer family 19th-century American lawyers