Managing Turbulent Times

Debra Brookhart

The Organization of American Historians began in 1907 as the Mississippi Valley Historical Association (MVHA) to serve those interested in the history of the region. Elected Secretary-Treasurer of the new association, Clarence S. Paine worked tirelessly to ensure its success. The association was initially open to only those individuals who were recommended to membership. Its first constitution, drafted in the minutes of October 17-18, 1907, stated that active membership would be limited to those who were officers or heads of departments of local or state historical societies. The attendees of the following meeting in December elected to amend the constitution to state that anyone interested in the study of Mississippi Valley history could become a member upon payment of dues. By 1916, the association had only a few hundred members but slowly gained a larger and more diverse membership.

On June 14, 1926, Paine's death left the association in a state of difficult transition. There were association bills to pay, dues to collect, printed proceedings of the annual meeting to ship, and the daily operations of the office to attend to. Clarence's wife, Clara, immediately began to fill in as business manager. Her familiarity with the association and the way her husband ran its affairs allowed her step in and see the MVHA through its first major disaster. Responsibilities of the Secretary-Treasurer included treasury reports, payment of bills, correspondence with the editor of the Proceedings of the Mississippi Valley Historical Association--and later the Mississippi Valley Historical Review--daily correspondence for the association, membership contacts, and constant communication with the president of the MVHA on the affairs of the association. Through an immediate resolution, the executive committee asked A. O. Thomas to act as Secretary-Treasurer of the MVHA with Clara Paine as his clerk. In December 1916 the executive committee elected Paine as the acting Secretary-Treasurer and business manager of the association for a salary of $10 a week. It was an office that she held for the next thirty-six years.

Although very little evidence is available about Clara Paine's personal life, what is clear from the existing sources is her passion for history, literature, and genealogical research--topics that arise frequently in her correspondence with MVHA presidents, board members, and general membership. She was tenacious and fought for what she believed best for the association and worked tirelessly for its success. She also helped to involve women in the association at a time when the historical profession employed few women. During Paine's tenure with the association, women's membership on committees began to increase and, in 1930, Louise P. Kellogg became its first female president.

Correspondence also suggests that some members believed that Paine took over the affairs of the MVHA so quickly after her husband's death for personal gain without any real understanding of the organization and its purposes. In a letter she wrote on April 21, 1917 to Frederick Paxson, then president of the association, she defended her position:

During the first years of the Association I did all the clerical work and always continued to relieve my husband of everything I could. You may wonder why I did not explain this to you before. My reason was that I did not want you to think my interest in the Association was only a mercenary one. While I need to avail myself of every opportunity to provide a living for my children, my interest in this Association is a very vital one. It is the monument that Mr. Paine has left and I would have done everything that I have done the past year had there not been any remuneration.

Paine wrote the letter in reaction to a disagreement with Paxson over the payment of a clerk. Paine's income, however, does not appear to have come solely from the association. She served as a librarian at the Nebraska Historical Society for a number of years and in 1924 Paine experienced defeat in a bid for a seat in the Nebraska Senate.

Clara Paine served the MVHA through both world wars and the Great Depression. She saw membership of the association grow from a few hundred in 1917 to around 3,000 in 1952 and the operating funds increase from a few dollars--just above breaking even--to over $25,000. In 1952, she became ill and passed the daily operations of the MVHA to her son with the hope that she would recover enough to go back to work. The executive committee received Clara Paine's letter of resignation at the December 28, 1952 meeting. Her son, Clarence S. Paine II, became the acting Secretary-Treasurer until James Olson's election to the office in 1953. A dozen years after Clara Paine left office, the Mississippi Valley Historical Association became the Organization of American Historians, a signal of its increasing influence nationwide (and a change that Paine herself passionately opposed). Because of the dedication and solid foundation laid by Clara S. Paine and other early leaders, the Mississippi Valley Historical Association endured some of its most difficult trials and evolved into one of the most influential historical organizations in the United States.

Debra Brookhart is an Archives Specialist at the Indiana University-Purdue University Library in Indianapolis. All information for this article comes from Mss 27, The Organization of American Historians Records, 1906-2003, IUPUI University Library Special Collections and Archives.