OAH Executive Board

30 March - 2 April 2000
St. Louis, Missouri

• Approved the minutes of the 22-24 October 1999, Executive Board meeting in Chicago, with three minor amendments.
• Agreed to delay discussion and approval of the 2001 budget until after the Annual Meeting, at a time when OAH staff will have more information about the effect of the St. Louis meeting on the organization's finances.
• Approved the appointment of Susan Porter Benson (University of Connecticut), Melvyn Leffler (University of Virginia), and Sylvia Frey (Tulane University) as new members of the Journal of American History Editorial Board.
• Approved the appointment of Thomas Schoonover (University of Louisiana) and Christiane Harzig (Universität Bremen) for the David Thelen Foreign Language Article Prize Committee and Elizabeth Varon (Wellseley College) for the Pelzer Prize Committee.
• Thanked Page P. Miller, Executive Director of the National Coordinating Committee for the Promotion of History for her years of dedication and hard work on behalf of the historical profession. (Miller subsequently was recognized during the Presidential Address and Award Presentation on Friday night and was given an award for her service.)
• Adopted the following statement on diversity, which the Committee on the Status of Minority Historians and Minority History presented at the meeting:
  
  The Organization of American Historians is committed in principle and action to fostering diversity within the historical profession. To this end, the OAH affirmatively acts for the inclusion of all who wish to join, participate, and have a voice in the organiza tion. The OAH believes that given today's increasingly global interactions, there must be concerted efforts to promote understanding, sensitivity, and respect for the range of cultures, abilities, and human identities as they have developed historically and in the present. The OAH believes in the principles of equality and social justice for all, especially those people who in the past have been and in the present are discriminated against or excluded.
  
  
• Thanked the OAH staff members and recognized their great efforts to make the St. Louis Annual Meeting a success despite the many last minute logistical changes.
• Thanked David Nord for his careful and wise stewardship of the Journal of American History during his tenure as acting editor.
• Voted to adopt the museum exhibit standards recommended by the Public History Committee and originally written and adopted by the Society for History in the Federal Government. (See below.)
• Created a Part-Time and Adjunct Faculty Committee, the members of which will be appointed by President Kenneth T. Jackson. The committee will discuss issues such as coordinating efforts with the AHA and other associations; examining the possibility of sanctions and involving the oversight of accreditation associations; pursuing corrective legislation to limit the use of part-time/adjunct faculty; pressing senior faculty to discuss the issue; and publicizing examples of departments and institutions making positive decisions about part-time/adjunct faculty.
• Adopted a memorial resolution of thanks to the late chancellor and former president of Indiana University, Herman B Wells, who passed away in March 2000. The resolution recognizes Wells's vision in transforming Indiana University, working with OAH Past President and Executive Secretary Thomas D. Clark to make a home for the OAH executive office on the Indiana University Bloomington campus, and supporting OAH in many other ways over the years as a Life Member since 1971. (See below.)
• Adopted a resolution from the National Council for History Education (NCHE) to coordinate among NCHE, OAH, and the AHA support for the teaching of history in schools. The resolution will result in the appointment of officers from OAH (and AHA, pending approval from that organization) as ex-officio non-voting members of the National Council for History Education Board of Trustees, as well as regular consultation and coordination between these organizations.
• Charged the executive office with drafting new guidelines for annual meeting site selection, which will be considered at the fall meeting of the executive board.
• After discussing other ways to increase graduate student participation and representation in the organization, the board voted to appoint four graduate students to the Membership Committee and to authorize up to $1,000 each year for the Membership Committee chair to apportion for their travel expenses.
• Expanded international representation on the Membership Committee by authorizing the president to include visiting foreign scholars as temporary membership representatives.
• Authorized the president to create a development committee, which, among other duties, would lead a capital campaign for the organization's centennial in 2007.
• Thanked David Montgomery, for his year as OAH president in 1999-2000; Nancy Cott, Fred Hoxie, and Roy Rosenzweig, whose three-year terms on the Executive Board ended at the Annual Meeting; and Linda K. Kerber, whose service as past-president and member of the Executive Board came to an end.

Resolution of Gratitude to Herman B Wells Whereas, Herman B Wells was responsible for transforming Indiana University into a major educational and research institution by bringing renowned scholars, international attention, and significant resources to the Bloomington campus; and

Whereas, Herman B Wells, together with OAH Past President Thomas D. Clark, was instrumental in bringing the editorial office of The Mississippi Valley Historical Review (later The Journal of American History) to Indiana University in 1963; and

Whereas, Herman B Wells, together with OAH Executive Secretary Thomas D. Clark, was instrumental in bringing the national headquarters of the Organization of American Historians to Indiana University in 1970; and

Whereas, Herman B Wells provided Raintree House as the permanent home for the executive office of the OAH, at 112 North Bryan Avenue, Bloomington, Indiana; and

Whereas, Herman B Wells joined the OAH in 1971 as a Life Member and continued to assist and patronize the organization throughout his life;

Now therefore be it resolved by the Executive Board of the Organization of American Historians that we express our sincere gratitude for his three decades of support for the OAH and mourn his passing on 18 March 2000.

Museum Exhibit Standards Society for History in the Federal Government
In a democracy, a knowledge of history forms the context in which citizens make informed decisions. Historical knowledge also provides personal, family, and community links to the past. Historical understanding of other societies assists individuals in identifying commonalities in the human condition and in negotiating the differences that exist in our increasingly pluralistic world.

Museum exhibits play an important role in the transmission of historical knowledge. They are viewed by citizens of diverse ages, interests, and backgrounds, often in family groups. They sometimes celebrate common events, occasionally memorialize tragedies or injustices, and contain an interpretive element, even if it is not readily apparent. The process of selecting themes, photographs, objects, documents, and other components to be included in an exhibit implies interpretive judgments about cause and effect, perspective, significance, and meaning.

Historical exhibits may encourage the informed discussion of their content and the broader issues of historical significance they raise. Attempts to suppress exhibits or to impose an uncritical point of view, however widely shared, are inimical to open and rational discussion.

In aiming to achieve exhibit goals, historians, museum curators, administrators, and members of museum boards should approach their task mindful of their public trust.

To discharge their duties appropriately, they should observe the following standards:

1. Exhibits should be founded on scholarship, marked by intellectual integrity, and subjected to rigorous peer review. Evidence considered in preparing the exhibit may include objects, written documentation, oral histories, images, works of art, music, and folklore.
2. At the outset of the exhibit process, museums should identify stakeholders in any exhibit and may wish to involve their representatives in the planning process.
3. Museums and other institutions funded with public monies should be keenly aware of the diversity within the communities and constituencies that they serve.
4. When an exhibit addresses a controversial subject, it should acknowledge the existence of competing points of view. The public should be able to see that history is a changing process of interpretation and reinterpretation formed through gathering and reviewing evidence, drawing conclusions, and presenting the conclusions in text or exhibit format.
5. Museum administrators should defend exhibits produced according to these standards.