George Burton Adams was an American medievalist historian who taught at Yale University from 1888 to 1925. He was noted for his written works as well as his 1908 address as president of the American Historical Association, which lamented the encroachment of the social sciences on the field of history, a position later challenged by James Harvey Robinson. He also played a key role in the establishment of the American Historical Review. Adams was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1899, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1918.