The ADE is saddened to learn of the loss of Mary Hackett on October 23.
Mary Hackett joined the staff of the Papers of James Madison in 1988 as an editor of the project’s Secretary of State Series. She attended Camp Edit the following year and quickly got involved with the ADE’s Meetings Committee, eventually becoming its longtime chair. While carrying out these duties, she edited volume after volume of papers documenting James Madison’s career as Secretary of State. For Volume 2 of that series she received the 1996 Arthur S. Link Prize from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. The 2006 Lyman H. Butterfield award recognized Mary’s cumulative scholarly achievement in her first four volumes, and by the time she retired in 2016, she had edited three more. She received the ADE’s Distinguished Service Award that year for her leadership of the Meetings Committee.
Mary loved history, documentary editing, the ADE, and its meetings. She loved chatting with colleagues of all ranks, and she always provided entertaining and incisive commentary on whatever was being discussed. Her enthusiasm was infectious. She is deeply missed, but her work lives on. For what is perhaps her magnum opus, see Madison’s 1806 pamphlet on neutral trade, with its 101 endnotes; and for a little comic relief courtesy of Mary, see Sylvanus Bourne to Madison, 29 Dec. 1803, n. 1.
You can read more about her life and memorials at https://www.hillandwood.com/obituaries/Mary-Hackett?obId=49985058.
Contributor: Angela Kreider, Editor in Chief, The Papers of James Madison
