Berthold Fernow (28 November 1837 – 3 March 1908) was a German-born American (

New York State New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. stat ...

) historian, author and librarian.

Biography

Berthold Fernow was born in

Inowrocław Inowrocław (; german: Hohensalza; before 1904: Inowrazlaw; archaic: Jungleslau) is a city in central Poland with a total population of 70,713 in December 2021. It is situated in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship since 1999, previously in the By ...

(now part of Poland),

Province of Posen The Province of Posen (german: Provinz Posen, pl, Prowincja Poznańska) was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1848 to 1920. Posen was established in 1848 following the Greater Poland Uprising as a successor to the Grand Duchy of Posen, w ...

, Prussia on 28 November 1837. He was the son of Edward Fernow, a royal councillor, and Bertha de Jachmann, sister of

Eduard von Jachmann Eduard Karl Emanuel von Jachmann (2 March 1822 – 21 October 1887) was the first ''Vizeadmiral'' (vice admiral) of the Prussian Navy. He entered the navy in the 1840s after initially serving in the merchant marine. In 1848, Jachmann recei ...

, a vice admiral in the Prussian service. He was educated at the royal gymnasium of Our Lady at

Magdeburg Magdeburg (; nds, label=Low Saxon, Meideborg ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river. Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archdiocese of Magdebur ...

Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...

, and at a similar institution at

Bromberg Bydgoszcz ( , , ; german: Bromberg) is a city in northern Poland, straddling the meeting of the River Vistula with its left-bank tributary, the Brda. With a city population of 339,053 as of December 2021 and an urban agglomeration with more ...

, Posen, in 1858. He then emigrated to the United States, served during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

as lieutenant of the 3rd U. S. colored troops, and subsequently as topographical engineer. For a time, he was one of the state librarians, keeper of the historical records at

Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York City ...

, and the editor of the 12th, 13th, and 14th volumes of ''Documents Relating to the Colonial History of New York'' (Albany, 1877–85), ''State Archives'' (vol. i, 1887); and ''Albany and its Place in the History of the United States'' (1887). Fernow also contributed to Wilson's ''History of New York'' (4 vols., 1892–93), and edited ''Records of New Amsterdam'' (7 vols., 1897–98). He wrote many magazine articles on historical subjects. He died in

Togus, Maine Togus, formally known as the Togus VA Medical Center, is a facility operated by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs in Chelsea, Maine. The facility was built as a resort hotel, and housed Union veterans of the American Civil War prior ...

on 3 March 1908.

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fernow, Berthold 1837 births 1908 deaths German emigrants to the United States American librarians 19th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers People from Inowrocław Union Army officers People from the Province of Posen 19th-century American male writers