Archer Butler Hulbert, FRGS (Jan 26, 1873 – December 24, 1933), historical geographer, writer, and professor of American history, son of Rev. Calvin Butler Hulbert and Mary Elizabeth Woodward, was born in Bennington, Vermont. His father later became President of Middlebury College. Hulbert was married twice. On September 10, 1901 he married Mary Elizabeth Stacy, who died in 1920. On June 16, 1923 he married Dorothy Printup. He had two daughters by each wife.
Hulbert graduated from Marietta College, Marietta, Ohio, in 1895. Hulbert also received an honorary MA in 1904 and was awarded an LHD in 1930. He received a Litt.D. from Middlebury in 1929.
He was Vice-Principal of the Putnam Military Academy, Zanesville, Ohio, until 1897. Hulbert then did newspaper work in Korea from 1897 to 1898: he was editor of the Korean Independent (Seoul) and edited Far East American newspapers. His brother, Homer Hulbert, had gone there in 1886. He was Professor of American History at Marietta College 1904-18. After Marietta College, Hulbert became a lecturer in American history at Clark University from 1918 to 1919. He also was a lecturer at the University of Chicago in 1904 and 1923; and he served as archivist for the Harvard Commission on Western History (1912–16). Hulbert's last position was at Colorado College, from 1920 until his death. After his death, his wife, Dorothy Printup Hulbert, continued his work.
Hulbert's interest in trails dated from fishing trips taken during his college, when he noticed Indian trails. This interest led at first to his 16 volumes of Historic Highways of America (1902–05).
The 1929 Bibliography of Archer Butler Hulbert lists 102 volumes. His work Forty Niners (1931) won a $5,000 prize from The Atlantic Monthly magazine.
