Richard H. Dufresne

Richard H. Dufresne
Name	Richard H. Dufresne
Birth date	1933
Birth place	Springfield, Massachusetts
Death date	2008
Occupation	Historian; Academic; Archivist
Alma mater	University of Wyoming; Harvard University
Notable works	The Bend of War; Plains Diplomacy
Awards	Guggenheim Fellowship; MacArthur Fellowship

Richard H. Dufresne was an American historian and archivist whose scholarship focused on nineteenth‑century United States frontier politics, Native American diplomacy, and the institutional evolution of western territories. He served on the faculties of major research universities and in state archival institutions, producing archival editions and interpretive monographs that informed studies of the American Civil War, Indian Removal, and Reconstruction Era. His work integrated documentary editing, museum curation, and regional public history initiatives.

Early life and education

Born in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1933, Dufresne grew up amid post‑Depression social changes that intersected with contemporaneous debates about Franklin D. Roosevelt administration policies and New Deal programs. He earned a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Wyoming, where he studied under historians influenced by scholarship on the American West and the historiographies of Frederick Jackson Turner and William Appleman Williams. Dufresne completed graduate study at Harvard University, writing a doctoral dissertation that drew on manuscript collections at the Library of Congress, the National Archives and Records Administration, and regional repositories such as the Kansas Historical Society and the Wyoming State Archives. During his formative years he corresponded with established scholars including Bernard DeVoto and John Higham, and participated in seminars where figures like Samuel Eliot Morison and Arthur Schlesinger Jr. lectured.

Career and professional work

Dufresne began his career as a curator and archivist at the Wyoming State Historical Society before accepting a faculty appointment at the University of Wyoming where he taught courses in nineteenth‑century American history alongside colleagues from the departments that produced scholarship on Transcontinental Railroad development and Manifest Destiny. He later joined the faculty of a research university in the Great Plains, collaborating with researchers at the Smithsonian Institution and the American Antiquarian Society on documentary projects. Dufresne directed editorial projects that produced critical editions of manuscript collections associated with figures like William Henry Harrison, Black Kettle, Christopher "Kit" Carson, and administrators of Kansas Territory. He served on advisory boards for the National Endowment for the Humanities and provided expertise to state historical commissions during centennial commemorations of events such as the Wounded Knee Massacre centenary and statehood anniversaries for Montana and Wyoming.

His archival practice emphasized provenance and access, prompting cooperative microfilming and digitization projects with the Library of Congress, the American Historical Association, and regional institutions including the Nebraska State Historical Society and the South Dakota State Historical Society. Dufresne lectured at venues such as the American Philosophical Society and the Newberry Library, and he participated in panels with historians like William E. Weeks and Ellen Fitzpatrick on themes linking frontier settlement to national politics.

Major contributions and publications

Dufresne produced several monographs and edited volumes that became standard references for scholars of western expansion and Native diplomacy. His book The Bend of War examined military logistics and civilian governance in western theaters during the American Civil War, integrating primary sources from the National Archives and regimental records from the United States Army Center of Military History. Plains Diplomacy offered a documentary edition of treaties, council proceedings, and correspondence involving leaders such as Red Cloud and Sitting Bull, accompanied by interpretive essays that engaged debates advanced by Richard White and Joanna Brooks. Other publications included edited collections on territorial constitutions that drew on papers held at the Harvard University Archives and the Yale University Library.

Dufresne's articles in journals such as the Journal of American History, Western Historical Quarterly, and American Quarterly addressed topics ranging from land tenure disputes involving Homestead Act claimants to administrative responses to frontier epidemics that intersected with public health measures inspired by figures like Luther Terry. He curated traveling exhibits in partnership with institutions including the Smithsonian National Museum of American History and regional museums in Idaho and Colorado, showcasing manuscript facsimiles and material culture tied to treaties, railroads, and territorial governance.

Awards and honors

Dufresne received recognition from national and regional institutions for his editorial and scholarly work. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to support documentary editing and a MacArthur Fellowship for contributions to public history and archival innovation. Professional honors included lifetime achievement awards from the Western History Association and the Organization of American Historians, and a named fellowship at the American Antiquarian Society. State historical societies in Wyoming and Nebraska granted him distinguished service medals, and several universities conferred honorary degrees in recognition of his influence on nineteenth‑century American studies.

Personal life and legacy

Dufresne married a fellow scholar from Harvard and raised a family in the Rocky Mountain region, where he engaged in local preservation initiatives and taught seminars for continuing education programs at institutions such as University of Colorado Boulder. He mentored generations of historians who went on to appointments at the University of California, Berkeley, University of Michigan, Princeton University, and other research centers. His editorial standards and advocacy for archival access influenced digitization policies at the Library of Congress and spurred collaborative networks among the National Archives, state historical societies, and university libraries. His papers are held in a state archival repository and continue to serve as resources for scholarship on nineteenth‑century American expansion, Indigenous treaty history, and territorial governance.

Category:1933 births Category:2008 deaths Category:American historians of the United States Category:Historians of the American West