Nancy Nichols Barker
Nancy Nichols Barker (1925 – 1994) was a professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin.
Professor Barker was born on December 26, 1925, in Mt. Vernon, New York. She received a bachelor's degree at Vassar College in 1946 and master's and doctoral degrees at the University of Pennsylvania in 1947 and 1955, respectively.
Dr. Barker taught briefly at the University of Delaware and joined the faculty of the University of Texas at Austin in 1955. She was a specialist in French diplomatic history.
Professor Barker was the author of several books, including The Empress Eugenie and the Foreign Policy of the Second Empire (1967), The French Experience in Mexico, 1821-1861: A History of Constant Misunderstanding (1979), and Phillippe, Duke of Orleans (1640-1701): Brother to the Sun King (1989). She also translated and edited The French Legation in Texas (1971-1973). With Marvin L. Brown Jr., Professor Barker edited Diplomacy in an Age of Nationalism: Essays in Honor of Lynn Marshall Case (1971).
Her work as the translator and editor of The French Legation in Texas won her the Gilbert Chinard Prize, the Summerfield G. Roberts Award, and the Award of Merit from the American Association for State and Local History. She also won the American Historical Society's Leo Gershoy Award in 1989 for Brother to the Sun King.
Professor Barker was a member of the American Historical Association, the Society for French Historical Studies, and the Western Society for French Historical Studies. She died on March 30, 1994 at the age of 68.
Works
- Distaff Diplomacy: The Empress Eugénie and the Foreign Policy of the Second Empire, 1967
- The French Experience in Mexico, 1821 - 1861 : A History of Constant Misunderstanding, 1979
- Brother to the Sun King : Philippe, Duke of Orléans, 1989
Translator and editor of the two-volume :
- The French Legation in Texas, 1973
Editor, with Marvin L. Brown:
- Diplomacy in an Age of Nationalism: Essays in Honor of Lynn Marshall Case, 1971
