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Father Guillermo Furlong, SJ
(1889-1974)
Historian

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Father Guillermo Furlong, SJ on Argentina Scott 1663
ARGENTINA, 1989, the centenary of Furlong's birth, Scott 1663

Born in Villa Constitución (Santa Fe, Argentina) in 1889, Furlong was raised in a British enclave in that city. At the age of thirteen he entered the Jesuit secondary school there and from 1910 to 1914 studied at Georgetown University. He returned to his country, taught history and English in the Colegio del Salvador, and with the help of the historian Enrique Rock began his lifelong research into the original sources of Jesuit activities and of the scientific and cultural life in the River Plate area during the colonial period. In 1939 Furlong was named a member of the National Academy of History. With more than 80 books and 1500 other works to his credit, he was one of the most prolific Argentine historians of the last century. In 1969, at the age of 80, he completed the three volumes of Historia social y cultural del Río de la Plata, 1536-1810, the major synthesis of a life of studies on the art, science and society in the River Plate prior to 1810. Furlong died in Buenos Aires in 1974. His book, The Jesuits: Their Origin, Spirit, and Work. The Society of Jesus across the Four Centuries of Its Existence, 1540-1940, is pictured on the above stamp.

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