Scope and Content Note
The records of the American Historical Association span the years 1884-1986. The records are divided into three parts that overlap chronologically. Part A represents accessions received from the association prior to 1963. It covers the period 1884-1962 and contains the largest share of the association's early records. Part B consists of material received by the Library of Congress from 1964 to 1975 and encompasses the years 1907-1974, with the bulk of the material dating from the mid-1950s to 1970. Part C consists of materials transferred to the Library from 1983 to 1990 and dates from 1954 to 1986, with the bulk of the material dating from 1966 to 1986. In addition to some mingling of dates, the three parts are interrelated by subject, activity, and organization. Part A is arranged in eight series: Secretary's File I , Treasurer's File , Executive Council File , American Historical Review File , Historical Service Board File , Committees and Related Organizations , Miscellany , and Secretary's File II . Part B is organized in eight series: American Historical Review File , Executive Council File , Secretary and Executive Secretary's File , Committee Files , Commission on the Social Studies , Service Center for Teachers of History , Treasurer's File , and Oversize . Part C is arranged in seven series: Administrative File, Committees and Delegates, Divisions, General Correspondence, Prizes and Awards, Publications, and Women Historians and Women's History.
The collection as a whole consists of correspondence, notes, minutes of meetings, financial records, manuscripts of published and unpublished articles, reports, membership cards and lists, resolutions, legal briefs, and printed matter. The records illustrate the association's growth and development as the leading scholarly group for American historians. Research in the records should be supplemented by a reading of the printed Annual Reports that are not a part of the collection.
The American Historical Association was founded to stimulate historical writing and studies in the United States through the promotion of various historical activities. The early association records indicate the extent of that interest primarily through the correspondence of the association's secretary who operated on a voluntary, part-time basis. In 1934 the association officially established a permanent, though still part-time, executive secretary to handle the increasing bulk of administrative work. The original secretary's office continued until 1940. In 1941, the executive secretary became a full-time position headquartered in Washington, D.C. Thereafter, the main activities of the association were directed from that location.
The Secretary's File I and Secretary's File II in Part A, as well as the Secretary and Executive Secretary's File in Part B, document the multifaceted functions of the association. The secretarial files contain voluminous correspondence on the day-to-day operations of the association and include exchanges between the secretary or secretarial staff and members of the association. Each of these series also includes records on annual meetings, the production of annual reports compiled by the secretary's office, the nomination of officers, the selection of committees, and relations with the Executive Council and the Board of Editors of the American Historical Review.
The earliest correspondence, reports, and minutes of meetings are located in the Secretary's File I and cover such subjects as the establishment of the Public Archives Commission and the association's cooperation with the American Political Science Association, the American Economic Association, and the Society of American Archivists. Also included are files relating to the establishment of the American Historical Review and the encouragement of noted writing projects such as the Guide to Historical Literature, Writings on American History, and the Dictionary of American Biography.
Files on various awards promoting historical scholarship are present in each of the secretarial series. The awards range from grants from the Albert J. Beveridge Fund for publication of material in United States history to the Herbert Baxter Adams Prize for work in European history to the David M. Matteson Fund used for bibliographic purposes. The activities of the association relating to other scholarly groups and to state and federal government agencies are also reflected in these series. The association's collaboration with the American Council of Learned Societies and the Social Science Research Council are fully documented. The records also reveal the association's interests in archival activities on the state and federal level. The American Historical Association encouraged the training of archivists and museum curators and promoted Department of State publications such as Foreign Relations of the United States and the Territorial Papers. In addition, there are records pertaining to the association's support for the construction of a National Archives building and the training of archivists through the American Historical Association-sponsored Public Archives Commission.
Much of the work of the American Historical Association has traditionally been conducted by committees. The Committees and Related Organizations series in Part A and the Committee Files series in Part B document this work although, owing to different filing systems used through the years, some of the committee records can be found in the secretarial file series. The variety of committee work is reflected in a sample of titles that include the Nomination Committee, Program Committee, Advisory Committee on the History Education Project, Anglo-American Committee on Bibliographies of British History, and Committee on Quantitative Data in History. Joint Committee for the Defense of Historians records as well as Council files chronicle the role of the association in protecting members of the historical profession in their pursuit of scholarship.
The American Historical Review files in Part A and Part B constitute major series in the collection. Correspondence among publishers, editors, authors, reviewers, and subscribers illustrate the growth of the scholarly journal. The bulk of the records relate to the content of the journal including articles, reviews, and news notes. There is also documentation on the American Historical Association's long relationship with the Macmillan Company, publishers of the review from 1895 to 1969.
The Executive Council series in Part A and Part B include correspondence, minutes, and reports on the activities of this supervisory group. Some of the records of the Council are interspersed in the secretarial series.
In the 1920s and 1930s the association sponsored the Commission on the Social Studies and that group's records make up a series in Part B. Included are studies, correspondence, minutes of meetings, budget data, and reports.
A major objective of the American Historical Association has been the improvement of teaching at all levels of education. In 1956, the association established the Service Center for Teachers of History that provided historical pamphlets and conferences for secondary teachers across the country. Correspondence, book orders, conference proceedings, and manuscripts of pamphlets pertaining to the center can be found in the Service Center for Teachers of History series in Part B.
In 1943, the Department of the Army asked the association to provide a series of study guides that the army could use in its troop information programs. The Historical Service Board Records series in Part A documents this joint venture through correspondence, contracts, proposals for papers, and pamphlets written by historians for use in the program.
The Treasurer's File series in Part A and Part B contain correspondence and financial records that document the association's budget from 1884 to 1969. Most financial records are located in these series, although a few records pertaining to individual groups and committees are retained with their respective committee records.
Series in Part C of the collection are listed and briefly described below. A fuller description of each series and a list of its contents can be accessed in the series descriptions within the container list.
The Part C: Administrative File chiefly documents the activities of the Executive Council and includes financial material and records of an internal Review Board.
The Part C: Committees and Delegates series consists of correspondence, membership information, votes, reports, and other records related to committee business and activities.
The Part C: Divisions series contains records of the Professional, Research, and Teaching divisions.
The Part C: General Correspondence series consists of correspondence with individuals, academic and professional organizations, research institutions, government entities, publishers, and other correspondents.
The Part C: Prizes and Awards series documents the many awards and prizes the association presented for excellence in scholarship and authorship.
The Part C: Publications series documents several of the American Historical Association’s publications, including the Employment Information Bulletin, Perspectives newsletter, and the American Historical Review.
The Part C: Women Historians and Women's History series consists of material relating to women in the academic profession, as well as the study of women’s history.
A sampling of names appearing in the collection include Thomas Perkins Abernathy, Herbert Baxter Adams, Charles McLean Andrews, Thomas Andrew Bailey, Frederic Bancroft, George Bancroft, Charles A. Beard, Mary Ritter Beard, Carl L. Becker, Samuel Flagg Bemis, Herbert Eugene Bolton, William J. Bouwsma, Solon J. Buck, Alfred LeRoy Burt, Avery Craven, Merle Curti, Philip D. Curtin, William Archibald Dunning, John King Fairbank, Sidney Bradshaw Fay, Guy Stanton Ford, Worthington Chauncey Ford, Dixon Ryan Fox, John Hope Franklin, Leo Gershoy, Charles Gibson, Louis Reichenthal Gottschalk, Lewis Hanke, Albert Bushnell Hart, Carlton J. H. Hayes, J. Franklin Jameson, Waldo Gifford Leland, Arthur Link, Dumas Malone, Ernest R. May, Donald R. McCoy, William Hardy McNeill, Frederick Merk, Samuel Eliot Morison, Richard Brandon Morris, William Alfred Morris, Dana Gardner Munro, Frank Lawrence Owsley, Robert R. Palmer, J. H. Parry, Frederic L. Paxson, Louis Pelzer, Dexter Perkins, Ulrich Bonnell Phillips, David H. Pinkney, Julius William Pratt, Charles W. Ramsdell, J. G. Randall, James Harvey Robinson, Arthur M. Schlesinger, (1888-1965), Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., Robert Livingston Schuyler, Charles Seymour, Boyd C. Shafer, H. Morse Stephens, Frederick Jackson Turner, Arthur Preston Whitaker, and Gordon Wright.