John Dawson Gilmary Shea (July 22, 1824 – February 22, 1892) was a writer, editor, and historian of American history in general and American Roman Catholic history specifically. He was also a leading authority on aboriginal native Americans in the United States. He is regarded as the "Father of American Catholic History".

Biography

John Dawson Shea was born in New York City to James Shea, an Irish immigrant and school principal, and Mary Ann (Flannigan) Shea. His early studies were at the grammar school of Columbia College, where his father was principal. At an early age he became a clerk in a Spanish merchant's office, where he learned to read and write Spanish fluently. Shea graduated from St. John's College (now Fordham University), and entered the Society of Jesus in 1844; during this time he added his middle name of Gilmary ("servant of Mary"). He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1846, and obtained the degree of LL.D. from St. John's College. In 1852, he left the Jesuits. His comprehensive study of early Indian missions in America, the Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley with the original narratives of Marquette, Allouez, Membré, Hennepin and Anastase Douay, was published later that year. In 1854 he married Sophie Savage. Shea turned his attention to literature, and was connected in an editorial capacity with Frank Leslie's publishing house, and later edited the Catholic News, but for many years his attention was given to historical research in preparation of his History of the Catholic Church in the United States (1886–92), the fourth volume of which was in process of publication at the time of his death in Elizabeth, New Jersey. A major research interest was French colonization and Jesuit missions in America. He edited the Historical Magazine from 1859 until 1865. In 1889 he became an editor of the Catholic News which supported him until his death. Shea was connected with many historical societies in America and Europe, and was the first president of the Catholic Historical Society of the United States. He was the first person to be awarded the Laetare Medal by the University of Notre Dame in 1883. Georgetown University conferred on him the degree of LL.D. in recognition of his work as a Catholic historian. The John Gilmary Shea Papers, a collection of correspondence, manuscripts, and research materials, are preserved in the Georgetown University Library (Special Collections Division). John Gilmary Shea died at his home in Elizabeth, New Jersey on February 22, 1892. In 1945 the John Gilmary Shea Prize was established by the American Catholic Historical Association for the most original and distinguished contribution to the knowledge of the history of the Roman Catholic Church. Shea was inducted into the Fordham University Hall of Honor in 2008.

Views on immigration

In 1879, Shea wrote in The American Catholic Quarterly Review that Italians and Chinese should not be permitted to immigrate to the United States. He praised Irish Catholic immigrants as "in the main pure, virtuous, healthy in body and mind, industrious, anxious for work" whose faults were due only to alcohol abuse, resulting in brawling. Their "good qualities far counterbalanced the bad". However, Italian immigrants, in Shea's view, largely "belonged to the dangerous class in their own country" and were part of a "steady criminal emigration". Chinese immigrants were "essentially demoralizing" and introduced "new forms of vice". Their cheap labor contributed to increased unemployment.

Works

Shea was author, editor or translator of more than 240 publications.

Authored

Edited

Translated

Shea published a series of grammars and dictionaries of the Indian languages (15 vols., 1860–1874), and revised Challoner's original Bible of 1750 (1871).