Making a Living, Making a Life: The Fellowship of Federal Historians

Kristin L. Ahlberg

Four days after our wedding in July 2003, my husband and I loaded our most valuable possessions in an aging Ford Escort and set out from Lincoln, Nebraska, to our new home in Alexandria, Virginia. Enthusiastically, I had accepted a job offer as a historian with the Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State. The opportunity to edit volumes in the Foreign Relations of the United States series—the oldest diplomatic documentary series of its kind—and create a professional life in the nation’s capital appealed to me on a variety of levels. All those years of watching the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour with my parents would not be in vain.

That is not to say that the transition between graduate student and working professional was seamless. It is probably not overstating the case to venture that most newly-minted Ph.D.s experience a sense of dislocation and disorientation in accepting a teaching, research, or government position geographically distant from the familiar. I had spent my childhood and college years in rural northern Wisconsin, followed by six years as a graduate student in Lincoln; the booming metropolis of Duluth—and occasionally Minneapolis and St. Paul—constituted the bulk of my urban experience. Now, we lived in an area where we had only a few extended family members and graduate school friends within reasonable driving distance. Although my work in the Office of the Historian was intellectually stimulating, I wanted to feel a greater sense of camaraderie with other federal historians who might be grappling with the same sorts of professional and life adjustments I experienced.

From the outset, the Society for History in the Federal Government (SHFG) provided me with the support and collegiality I desired as a federal historian. SHFG’s organizational roots can be traced back to the mid 1970s, when the Office of the Historian, under the direction of Department Historian David F. Trask, labored to increase the status of federal historians within the larger historical profession and solidify connections between Department of State historians and their colleagues in other federal agencies. In conjunction with the Washington, D.C.-based annual meetings of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR), the Office of the Historian hosted a series of practical workshops for SHAFR members and government historians on archival and access issues. In September 1977, the Office scheduled a daylong meeting at the Department of State in order to forge common ground among federal historians. Trask, in an article appearing in the first issue of The Public Historian, noted that the meeting served as a catalyst for SHFG’s creation. With the encouragement of the National Coordinating Committee for the Promotion of History (a consortium organized by the OAH, American Historical Association and other historical groups, and now known as the National Coalition for History), historians such as Richard Hewlett, Jack Holl, Gerald Haines, Anna Nelson, Samuel Walker, Maeva Marcus, Bill Dudley, Philip Cantelon, Martin Reuss, and George Mazusan founded SHFG in 1979. The organization was formally organized on February 15, 1980, and its first meeting took place at the James Forrestal building in Washington on April 16 with diplomatic historian and OAH president William Appleman Williams and North Carolina Senator Robert Morgan as keynote speakers.

The society’s purpose, as articulated in its mission statement, is to “encourage, promote, and foster historical, archival, and other related activities of and about the United States Government.” The organization pursues these goals in a myriad of ways. First and foremost, SHFG serves as an advocate for the professional concerns of its members and other historians employed in the federal history arena. One of the most pressing issues facing federal historians during the early 1980s was the General Services Administration’s (GSA) scheme to decentralize the National Archives and disperse records throughout the various regional records centers. SHFG members lobbied against this development and pushed for a National Archives free from GSA oversight, a goal realized in April 1985 when the Archives became an independent agency (NARA). A more recent concern centered on the reclassification of previously-declassified documentation in NARA and presidential libraries. Keeping with the organization’s advocacy role, SHFG has also promulgated guidelines for professional conduct. The Principles and Standards for Federal Historical Programs delineate a federal historian’s rights and responsibilities and provide guidance on conducting archival research and oral interviews, writing historical studies and policy papers, preserving archival records, and advising policymakers. On another level, the society has strived to create an inclusive social and intellectual community of scholars within the federal bureaucracy. The society’s annual conferences provide historians with the opportunity to meet their cohorts in other federal agencies, participate in scholarly sessions on new research and programs, and acknowledge and reward the contributions of their colleagues. Other events such as the annual holiday party and new member social hours serve a similar, if more informal, purpose.

Strengthening the connections between SHFG and the larger historical associations and facilitating greater public understanding of federal history also remain key priorities. The organization is a member of the National Coalition for History and an affiliate society of the American Historical Association. SHFG members serve in various leadership capacities within the major organizations, including AHA, OAH, the Society of American Archivists (SAA) and the National Council for Public History (NCPH). So, too, do federal historians participate in the annual meetings of these organizations as members of the program and local arrangements committees, as presenters of original research, and as sponsors of affiliate sessions and receptions. The strength of SHFG’s public mission lies in its publication and speakers programs. A talented group of editors and contributors produce The Federalist, the society’s quarterly newsletter, which features articles on historical initiatives and publications within federal history programs and listings of upcoming conferences and events. The society’s Occasional Papers series publishes original historical research. The annual Hewlett lecture, named in recognition of Dick Hewlett’s seminal contributions to SHFG and the field of public history, provides a forum for a distinguished speaker to discuss a federal topic of their choosing. Hewlett Lecturers have included renowned historians (such as Forrest C. Pogue, Louis Galambos and David Kahn), Archivists of the United States (John W. Carlin and Allen Weinstein), a Surgeon General (David Satcher), the Executive Director of the AHA (Arnita Jones), and many other distinguished scholars and officials.

Serving as a federal historian at the Department of State is more than a living; it is the realization of a long-time personal aspiration. But it has been my association with SHFG that has enhanced my professional satisfaction and provided the essential fellowship with other federal historians, making the professional life of this federal historian well worth living.

Kristin L. Ahlberg is a historian in the Europe and Global Issues Division, Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State. The views expressed in this article are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of the Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, or the United States Government.