Mellen Chamberlain

He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1844 and from the Harvard Law School in 1848. In 1849 he was admitted to the bar, opened a law office in Boston and made his residence in Chelsea, where, during 51 years of citizenship, he served the town in many public capacities. In 1858 and 1859 he was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives and the Senate in 1863-64. He was associate justice of the Municipal Court of Boston 1866-70, and chief justice 1870-78.

On 26 August 1878, he was chosen librarian-in-chief of the Boston Public Library, where he served until ill health compelled his retirement in 1890. During his administration, a new library building was begun and the cornerstone laid. Throughout his life he was a close student and investigator of American history.

Chamberlain in 1855

Besides chapters in Justin Winsor's Memorial History of Boston (1881), he wrote:

• The History of Winnisimmet, Rumney Marsh, and Pullin Point (1880)
• Narrative and Critical History of America (1888)
• John Adams, the Statesman of the Revolution (1884)
• The Authentication of the Declaration of Independence (1885)
• John Adams, the Statesman, with Other Essays and Addresses (1898)
• The Journals of Captain Henry Dearborn, 1775-83 (1886–87)
• The Constitutional Relations of the American Colonies to the English Government at the Commencement of the American Revolution (1887)

• 84th Massachusetts General Court (1863)
• 85th Massachusetts General Court (1864)

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rines, George Edwin, ed. (1920). "Chamberlain, Mellen" . Encyclopedia Americana.
• Gilman, D. C.; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905). "Chamberlain, Mellen" . New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.