David Pulsifer (22 September 1802, in Ipswich, Massachusetts – 9 August 1894, in Augusta, Maine), was a historian and a preserver of old records.
He studied in the district schools, and then went to Salem to learn bookbinding, where, in handling old records, his taste for antiquarian research was first developed.
Subsequently, he served as clerk in county courts and transcribed several ancient books of records.
In 1853 the governor of Massachusetts called the attention of the executive council to the perishing condition of the early records and recommended that the two oldest volumes of the general court records should be printed at the expense of the state.
Of his work, Samuel F. Haven, in his introduction to the printed records in the Archaeologia, wrote that Pulsifer "unites the qualities of an expert in chirography with a genuine antiquarian taste and much familiarity with ancient records.” Pulsifer edited: He wrote: