Herbert Baxter Adams (April 16, 1850 – July 30, 1901) was an American educator and historian who brought German rigor to the study of history and social science in America.

[4] Herbert B. Adams received his early training in the Amherst, Massachusetts public schools followed by Phillips Exeter Academy.

[9] At Johns Hopkins, in 1880, Adams began his famous seminar in history, where a large proportion of the next generation of American historians trained.

[11] His historical writings introduced scientific methods of investigation that influenced many historians, including Frederick Jackson Turner and John Spencer Bassett.

His principal writings are: All these papers are published in the Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science, edited by Prof. Adams, 4 vols.

A new class of experts needed new modes of training, and those were provided by the new American graduate schools, built along German models.

Raymond Cunningham, argues that his reformism shows that the Mugwumps movement could attract affirmative and optimistic experts, rather than just suspicious or cautious patricians.

[9] Adams made a report to the U.S. Bureau of Education on summer schools in Europe in 1896, and resigned the chair of American and institutional history at Johns Hopkins University in December, 1900, to take effect in February, 1901, and then visited Florida.

[9] Returning to his home in Amherst, Massachusetts, Adams died on July 30, 1901, and was buried next to his parents and older brother in Wildwood Cemetery.