A medievalist who wrote extensively on the history of Boston, Walter Muir Whitehill received his AB and AM degrees from Harvard and his Ph.D. from the University of London. Whitehill served as the Director and Librarian of the Boston Athenaeum from 1946 to 1973 and was the editor for publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts from 1946 to 1978. From 1951 to 1972 Whitehill was a professor at Harvard University.