Harvard University President Drew Faust Awarded First John Codman Ropes Award by Mass. Historical Society

From right to left, Mass. Historical Society president Catherine Allgor, Ropes & Gray partner Newcomb Stillwell, Harvard University president Drew Faust, and Mass. Historical Society board chair Paul Sandman.

The Massachusetts Historical Society has awarded departing Harvard University president Drew Faust its first John Codman Ropes award. The co-founder of Ropes & Gray was a lawyer, renowned Civil War historian, and founder of the Military Historical Society of Massachusetts. Ropes & Gray worked with the historical society to create the award as a way to recognize “extraordinary service to history.”

A historian of the Civil War and the American South, Ms. Faust was the founding dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard. She is the author of six books including "This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War," which looks at the impact of the Civil War's enormous death toll on the lives of 19th-century Americans.

The historical society gave the award to Ms. Faust in front of a crowd of about 300 people at the Cocktails with Clio fundraising event, held on May 17 at the Fairmont Copley Plaza hotel.

In a recent article published by The Boston Globe, Newcomb Stillwell, co-managing partner of Ropes & Gray’s Boston office, remarked that “the firm has had long ties to the society and hopes the award can draw strong speakers and donors in the future.”