At its second annual meeting in Saratoga in 1885, the newly appointed Committee on Nominations for Honorary Membership introduced the following resolution, which was adopted by those present:
Whereas: The American Historical Association is deeply sensible of the debt which historical science owes to its oldest and most distinguished living exponent; and is desirous of signalizing its own devotion to pursuits which Leopold von Ranke has so conspicuously followed, therefore,
Resolved: That the President of the Association be requested to transmit to that historian its first testimonial of honorary membership.
On December 5, 1885, President George Bancroft sent the following letter to Dr. von Ranke:
My Venerable Master and Dear and Most Highly Honored Friend—We have had many historical societies in our several States. We have lately founded the American Historical Association, which is to devote itself to the affairs of the United States of America. We wish for your benediction; and for that end we ask you, and, as yet, you alone, to accept the proof of our reverence by consenting to become our honorary member. We have meant this to make a special homage to yourself as the greatest living historian. I add my personal request to the request of the society that you will give us this mark of your regard. We thank Heaven that you approach your ninetieth year in the enjoyment or health. May you long continue the ever-increasing proofs of the honor and affection in which you are held by your fellow-men. Ever your very affectionate and devoted scholar and friend, George Bancroft.
On February 14, 1886, Leopold von Ranke wrote from Berlin:
In reply to your kind communication, I gratefully accept the position of an honorary member in the Association, to which I have been elected. It gives me great satisfaction to belong to a society pursuing beyond the ocean the same aims that we on this side are striving to achieve. Such unity of studies binds together peoples widely separated, yet allied by ancient kinship. It fills me with especial joy to see Mr. George Bancroft, one of the masters in our science, extending his hand to me from afar—a man who, during his residence in Berlin, bound me to himself by ties of reverential friendship. Accept my hearty sentiments and honor.
Dr. von Ranke died a few months later on May 23.
Two more honorary members were elected in 1899: The Rt. Rev. William Stubbs, Bishop of Oxford, and Samuel Rawson Gardiner, also of England. In 1900, Theodor Mommsen of Germany was elected 10 honorary membership, and in 1906 James Bryce, who later served as British Ambassador to the United States, was elected.
Almost forty years elapsed before the next foreign scholar was so honored. In 1943, Italian historian, philosopher, statesman, and literary critic, Benedetto Croce, was elected.
In 1941, ten more distinguished foreign scholars joined the ranks of honorary members: Rafael Altamira y Crevea (Spain); Domingo Amunátegui y Solar (Chile); Pierre Caron (France); Aage Friis (Denmark); Shih Hu (China); Johan Huizinga (The Netherlands); Albert Frederick Pollard (United Kingdom); Afonso de Escragnolle Taunay (Brazil); George Macaulay Trevelyan (United Kingdom); George Mackinnon Wrong (Canada). Professor Huizinga had no knowledge of his election; his country was still occupied by Germany and it was considered inadvisable to attempt to communicate with him at that time. News of his death was received here on March 23, 1945.
In 1945 the Committee on Honorary Members recommended that the number of living honorary members at any one time should not exceed fifteen. The Council agreed and between 1945 and 1967 the following were elected to the Clio Hall of Fame:.
1945 Gaetano de Sanctis (Italy)
1945 Sir George Peabody Gooch (United Kingdom)
1945 Halvdan Koht (Norway)
1945 Sir Frederick M. Powicke (United Kingdom)
1947 Vicente Lecuna (Venezuela)
1947 Friedrich Meinecke (Germany)
1947 Pierre Renouvin (France)
1949 Alfons Dopsch (Austria)
1949 Sir Charles Kingsley Webster (United Kingdom)
1952 Jadunath Sarkar (India)
1952 Franz Schnabel (Germany)
1952 Constantin Zureiq (Syria)
1953 Georges Lefebvre (France)
1955 Federico Chabod (Italy)
1957 Pieter Geyl (Netherlands)
In 1957 the Council voted to increase the number of honorary members in the association to a maximum of twenty-five and established the following principle for election: “Recognition should first be governed by scholarship, then teaching, then historical activities. Geographical consideration should enter in only after these primary criteria.”
1958 Mehmet Fuat Köprülü (Turkey)
1958 Sir Lewis Namier (United Kingdom)
1958 Silvio Zavala (Mexico)
1959 Gerhard Ritter (Germany)
1960 Francois-Louis Ganshof (Belgium)
1960 Sir Keith Hancock (Australia)
1960 Saukichi Tsuda (Japan)
1961 Edouard Perroy (France)
1961 Mario Toscano (Italy)
1961 Sei Wada (Japan)
1963 Delio Cantimori (Italy)
1963 Sir Winston Churchill (United Kingdom)
1963 Arnaldo Momigliano (Italy)
1963 Roland Mousnier (France)
1963 Sir Ronald Syme (United Kingdom)
1963 Mikhail N. Tikhomirov (USSR)
1963 Pyong-do Yi (Korea)
1964 Sir George Clark (United Kingdom)
1965 Jacques L. Godechot (France)
1965 Yasaka Takagi (Japan)
1966 Fernand Braudel (France)
1966 Sir Denis Brogan (United Kingdom)
1966 Claude Cahen (France)
1966 Richard W. Southern (United Kingdom)
1967 Sir Herbert Butterfield (United Kingdom)
1967 Jean-Baptiste Duroselle (France)
1967 Sir John Neale (United Kingdom)
1967 P. A. Zaionchkovskii (USSR)
Honorary memberships were discontinued until 1980 when the Council revived the practice. Those honored in 1981 were Guillaume de Bertier de Sauvigny (France); Ragnhild M. Hatton (United Kingdom); Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie (France); John H. Plumb (United Kingdom); and the following year: Geoffrey R. Elton (United Kingdom); Christopher Hill (United Kingdom); Masao Maruyama (Japan); W. N. Medlicott (United Kingdom).
Selection of honorary members is now made in the even-numbered years and the membership at large is invited to submit nominations to the Research Division, which will then narrow the list of candidates to a few names and submit them to the Council for final decision. The criteria for selection are: (1) distinguished work in any field of history; and (2) historians who, in the course of their careers, have “notably aided the work of American historians.”
