The Convention
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 Formwalt |
Aside from publishing The Journal of American History, the most important thing OAH accomplishes is the annual meeting each spring. This year's meeting--held last month in Washington--was one of our most successful, having the largest attendance since the last time we met in the nation's capital in 1995. This year's joint conference with the National Council on Public History (NCPH) was outstanding in several ways and is a reminder of how much the convention is at the very heart of OAH. Over 1,800 members preregistered for the meeting and more than 700 registered on site, for a grand total of 2,557. Many observed that it was the most diverse OAH meeting they had ever attended. On receiving the Distinguished Service Award, former OAH president and pioneer in women's history Gerda Lerner remarked on the diversity and noted the contrast with her first OAH meeting where most of the men ignored her and she ended up finding comfort and companionship with several nuns who were attending. Not only was the attendance in Washington diverse, but it was much larger than expected, especially at the three major evening events. Six hundred members packed the hall where Bernice Johnson Reagon's group, Sweet Honey In the Rock, managed to get a group of staid historians on their feet singing and clapping. Attendance at the presidential address and awards ceremony on Friday night was higher than expected. More than three hundred members applauded the Distinguished Service Award given to three former OAH presidents and pioneers in African American and women's history: John Hope Franklin, Gerda Lerner, and Anne Firor Scott. Among the numerous scholarly prize-winners, David Blight stood out, carrying off an unprecedented four OAH awards for his outstanding work, Race and Memory. Saturday night witnessed another capacity crowd when a half-dozen historians paid tribute to John Hope Franklin and described the impact that he had on their careers and the field of American history. This year at the Distinguished Members Reception, OAH honored the ninety-six members who joined the Mississippi Valley Historical Association in 1952 or earlier. Many of these members for a half-century or more could not make the Washington meeting, but a number included recollections of the old MVHA in their RSVP notes. Among those present was Frank L. Byrne, professor emeritus at Kent State University, who was accompanied by his wife Marilyn. Frank was delighted to be recognized for his longtime support of OAH and to see one of his former students, Darlene Clark Hine, preside over the organization. We were very sad to hear that a week after his return to Kent State, Frank suffered a heart attack and died. Grateful that we had the opportunity to recognize and honor one of those who went before us, we are reminded how important it is to remember our own profession's legacy as we teach, research, and write about the American past. The annual meeting is a significant part of that legacy and every important function of the organization is manifested in these annual spring assemblages. The latest scholarship is heard in the hundreds of papers delivered over four days of sessions. The editorial board of The Journal of American History (JAH) meets here as well as The History Cooperative--the collaboration that publishes the electronic version of the JAH, the American Historical Review, and other leading historical journals. OAH's commitment to history teaching is reflected in the Focus on Teaching sessions, the meeting of the Teaching Committee and the Magazine of History editorial board. OAH's concern for teaching and scholarship can be seen in the new state-of-the-art sessions and the ever popular Exhibit Hall where publishers display the latest scholarship being used in history classrooms around the country. OAH's efforts to promote the widest possible access to historical sources and scholarship, and the widest possible discussion of historical questions and controversies, was visible at the meeting in the promotion of our new cosponsored weekly half-hour radio program, Talking History. The C-SPAN broadcast of OAH sessions brings professional American history to a much broader viewing audience. Within a day of our return to OAH headquarters in Bloomington, we were receiving mail from C-SPAN viewers, indicating that ordinary citizens, as well as historians coming to Washington, took something away from the meeting. Advocacy, another important OAH function, was in plain sight throughout the meeting. A group of historians attended a workshop on how to persuade representatives and senators to support legislation that would benefit American history research and teaching. The Association of American University Presses (the other AAUP) set up a display of two dozen books which might not have been published had access to presidential papers been as limited as the Bush Administration insists. OAH president-elect Ira Berlin and AAUP executive director Peter Givler held a press conference at the meeting outlining historians' and publishers' concerns about restrictions on access to historical documents. Finally, and for some members most importantly, the annual meeting provides an opportunity for colleagues and old friends to meet and socialize. It also allows members to meet new colleagues who practice in the same field of American history or in the same geographic area. The highly popular regional receptions, which are held the first evening of the meeting, facilitate this process. Since the annual meeting is so critical to our life as an organization, we are anxious to get feedback about the meeting and suggestions for future gatherings. This year, for the first time, we sent a brief electronic survey to all attendees, and within ten days of the meeting's close, we had over three hundred responses. Among other things, many members are concerned about the rising cost of hotel rooms. This summer OAH staff will conduct a major study of room rates in various cities and examine a variety of options to keep costs down--such as meeting in smaller cities, meeting in facilities other than luxury hotels, signing multi-year contracts, and meeting at a time of the year other than spring--and present these findings to the executive board at its fall meeting. Let me extend my special thanks to the 2002 OAH-NCPH program committee, led by Wilma King and Dwight Pitcaithley. The 2003 committee has been hard at work putting together another intellectually exciting and culturally enriching program for us next year in Memphis where we will help that city commemorate the thirty-fifth anniversary of Dr. King's assassination. Mark your calendar for the 3-6 April OAH meeting in the home of the blues and the birthplace of rock 'n' roll. |
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