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Joyce Appleby

American historian (1929-2016)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 12, 2026
Entity authorityQ6297380 ↗
Source-derived summary

Joyce Oldham Appleby (April 9, 1929 – December 23, 2016) was an American historian. She was a professor of history at UCLA. She was president of the Organization of American Historians (1991) and the American Historical Association (1997).

Life

Appleby was born in Omaha, Nebraska. Her father was a businessman and she attended public schools in Omaha, Dallas, Kansas City, Evanston, Phoenix and Pasadena.

Appleby received her B.A. degree in history from Stanford University in 1950 and became a magazine writer in New York. Returning to academia, she earned her M.A. from the University of California, Santa Barbara and her Ph.D. in history from Claremont Graduate School in 1966.

Appleby was the widow of Andrew Bell Appleby, a professor of European history at San Diego State University. Her first marriage to Mark Lansburgh ended in divorce. She had three children: Ann Lansburgh Caylor, Mark Lansburgh and Frank Bell Appleby.

Appleby died on December 23, 2016, at the age of 87.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Joyce Appleby” as american historian (1929-2016). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Joyce, Appleby and American.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1929, 2016, 1991, 1997—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1929-04-09. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Joyce, Appleby and American providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Joyce Appleby”, the useful work is to connect “american historian (1929-2016)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6297380. VIAF identifies the subject as 109170196. The Library of Congress control number is n83162040. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1929, 2016, 1991 and 1997.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Joyce Appleby”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Joyce Appleby primary sources, Joyce Appleby archive and Joyce research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Joyce Appleby”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Joyce Appleby” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.