For History's Sake, Associations Advance the Field

Reuben Gold Thwaites, long-time executive of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, presented the following report, The Best Methods of Organization and Work on the Part of State and Local Historical Societies, at the American Historical Association’ s annual meeting in 1905 in response to a survey undertaken the previous year. The excerpted portion focuses primarily on recommendations regarding scope, purpose, and public presentation of history by state and local historical societies. Many of these ideas continue to guide American historical organizations.

Interview with Jon Lauck

Two of the features which distinguished American historical scholarship at the beginning of the twentieth century were a preoccupation with the collection of sources and the reorientation of interest from Europe and the Atlantic seaboard to the American West. Armed with the new weapons of critical methodology and the heady ambition to make history scientific, the first generation of professional historians set out with remarkable determination to gather historical manuscripts. At the same time, the closing of the frontier, and the Turner thesis which reflected it, opened the serious study of the history of the Mississippi Valley. Not surprisingly, these two currents, which merged in the foundation of the Mississippi Valley Historical Association, led to programs for exploiting the sources for American history to be found in European libraries and archives. Addressing the Mississippi Valley Historical Association at its first annual meeting Clarence Alvord complained that we have been writing of the French in the Mississippi Valley, and of British policy in the West, without searching in the chief depositories for our material, and proposed the copying of relevant material in Europe.' In the same year, 1908, the Conference of State and Local Historical Societies, aware that copying had already begun in Britain, recommended that French archives, as the richest field of practically unexplored material, be searched as a preliminary to the copying of their American contents.2 In fact,

Introduction. The current stage of the development of local history is characterized by an increased interest in the most valuable results of scientists of the XX century. An active study of the information collected and systematized by them is underway. By 1917, local history took a significant place in cultural and social life of large and small cities. There was a wide range of educated people engaged in local history research, and a generation of local historians emerged. Local history societies, museums and clubs sprang up everywhere. They formed the real scientific basis without which it is difficult to imagine the further development of local history. Vladimir G. Gnilovskoy made a great contribution to the development of geographical local history and brought it to a new level but the main views of the scientist remain insufficiently studied. Materials and research methods. The research was based on the principles of historicism, objectivity and consistency. The use of general scientific methods of analysis and synthesis made the great contribution to the in-depth study of historical phenomena in the field of geographical local history. The paper uses a comparative historical method and a system-functional analysis of the material using a problem-chronological approach. The method of quantitative analysis allowed us to track the dynamics of local history works of various types over the entire period under review. Scientific legacy of V. G. Gnilovskoy is largely determined by the reliance on the works of his predecessors, their critical analysis which allowed us to complete a certain stage in the accumulation of empirical information about the nature of Stavropol. The paper uses a comparative-historical method and a system-functional analysis of the material using a problem-chronological approach. The method of quantitative analysis allowed us to trace the dynamics of local history works of various types for the entire period under review. Research results and their discussion. The purpose of this article is to identify and analyze the contribution of V. G. Gnilovskoy to the development of geographical local history. To achieve this goal the work of local historians – the predecessors in Stavropol in the XIX – early XX centuries was analyzed and the research activities of V. G. Gnilovskoy were systematized. The main approaches and principles of geographical local history in the works of V. G. Gnilovskoy were identified as well as the key ideas of popularization and educational activities of the scientist in the field of geographical local history were summarized. Conclusions. Systematization of research activities V. G. Gnilovskoy allowed us to identify two main areas that most of the scientist's works belong to: a) scientific work in the field of geomorphology; b) research activities in the field of historical geography. His long-term scientific research and discoveries enriched the geographical knowledge of Stavropol and gave an impetus to further more in-depth and comprehensive research. All the results of his research activities V. G. Gnilovskay tried not only to publish but also to convey to the public. Having identified the key ideas of popularization and educational activities in the field of geographical local history we can conclude that V. G. Gnilovskoy made a great contribution to the organization and conduct of public education activities.

After flourishing in the late twentieth century, community labor history projects have languished in recent decades. 1 Perhaps not anticipating the new spark of labor mobilization of the past few years, labor historians and local museums and historical societies have missed opportunities to document the stories of ordinary workers and their unions and educate and inspire others through public exhibits and programs. Both public historians and their academic partners have faced new challenges in presenting stories about American workers. This is partly due to the neoliberal political economy, as editors Thomas Klubock and Paulo Fontes conclude in their introduction to a special issue of International Labor and Working-Class History on labor and public history, but also because of new priorities within museum and academic cultures. 2 Richard Anderson recently noted this disconnect between labor and labor historians and stated that making labor scholarship accessible is key to forming "a deep reservoir of inspiration and guidance" for current labor struggles, even as the demands of the academy require scholars to publish in more

The Challenges of Global Church History for Those outside the United States of America

Aboriginal history and local history have both sat on the periphery of academic scholarship most of the twentieth century. Local historical societies have attracted academic criticism due to their perceived failure to include Aboriginal history in their publications and museums. This article explores attempts made by country town historical societies during the 1960s-1970s to learn about the local Aboriginal past. Early society-run activities such as seminars, research and excursions reveal a genuine interest in the local Aboriginal past. Most importantly, they suggest that society members did not know as much about Aboriginal history as they felt they should.This article has been peer reviewed

The son of an early East Tennessee settler, James Gettys McGready Ramsey saw it as his patriotic and filial duty to collect, preserve, and disseminate his knowledge and grand vision of the pioneer generation to scholars, whom he believed had overlooked the region's important contributions to American history. Although an 1863 fire destroyed his collections, Ramsey's work with state and local historical societies, his correspondence with historian and fellow collector Lyman C. Draper, and the 1853 publication of his Annals of Tennessee continue to influence the compilation and interpretation of the region's historical record.

State and Local Historical Societies in the United States

BOOK REVIEWSOV destiny "to overspread and possess" adjacent weak nations. The agents of Manifest Destiny were zealots proclaiming die highest patriotic objectives . Although, says Brown, "the leaders might profess goals of freeing the people of neighboring lands from tyrannical or inept rulers, . . . one and all they sought glory for themselves" (p. 459). Their followers were young adventurers, waterfront rabble, businessmen willing to wager a few dollars for huge stakes, and Southern extremists eager for new slave territory. The story covers the entire nineteendi century, beginning widi a few introductory chapters dealing with private plots from Aaron Burr to the end of die Mexican W7ar, and concluding with a chapter on dwindling dreams of expansion from 1861 to 1900. The heart of the book deals with the efforts of Narciso Lopez to seize power in Spanish Cuba, and William W7alker's various campaigns to conquer Baja California and Sonora from Mexico and later to seize and "liberate" Nicaragua. Brown narrates these episodes in detail, giving the reader a clearer view of the day-today activities dian is available elsewhere. The incessant intrigues and the bloody skirmishes become increasingly gripping and filled with suspense as the tragedy of these two would-be dictators, Lopez and W7alker, unfolds. Considering themselves invincible Messiahs, they made spur-of-die-moment decisions about fund raising, mobilizing recruits, acquisition of ordnance and transport facilities, and about military action in die field. Especially useful are Brown's racy capsule biographies of dieir many collaborators— men like O'Sullivan, Law, Sanders, Doubleday, W7heat, Lockridge, French, Fayssoux, Henningsen, Quitman, Soulé, and many others. Brown treats die diplomatic problems raised by filibustering mainly by showing die difficulties the United States government encountered in trying to enforce neutrality laws at ports where the local populace approved of these private military excursions. The volume rests largely on the printed memoirs of die filibusters. The author gives variant versions when he cannot resolve contradictions . He also has used die major contemporary newspaper accounts, the published diplomatic correspondence, and the large body of secondary material. The bookmaking is first-class, a credit to the publisher. Although die author makes no effort to connect the marauding troops of the 1850s with diose of today, die reader will find himself making comparisons and contrasts between these early filibusters and the guerrillas operating in many parts of the globe in recent years. Philip S. Klein The Pennsylvania State Univ. The History of the Confederate States Marine Corps. By Ralph W7. Donnelly . (Published by the Author, 1976. Pp. xxi, 275.) Biographical Sketches of the Commissioned Officers of the Confeder- 90civil war history ate States Marine Corps. By Ralph W7. Donnelly. (Published by the Author, 1973. Pp. xii, 68.) Service Records of Confederate Enlisted Marines. By Ralph W7. Donnelly . (Published by the Audior, 1979. Pp. xxii, 125. Copies can be ordered from 913 Market Street, Washington, North Carolina 27889.) For nearly a century, students of the Civil W7ar were tantalized by occasional references to Confederate Marines. Now, three volumes by one author have given that obscure Corps a superbly researched, comprehensive , and well-written history. In 1957 and 1959, articles appeared in the Military Collector and Historian and Military Affairs. These articles were entitled "Uniforms and Equipment of Confederate Marines" and "Battle Honors and Service of Confederate Marines." The two articles, written by Ralph W7. Donnelly, contained the most detailed and accurate information that had then been published about Confederate Marines. Not satisfied with an auspicious beginning, Donnelly went on to author the diree-volume history of die C.S.M.C. Before retiring as a United States Marine Corps Reference Historian in 1978, Donnelly had been elected a Fellow of both the Company of Military Historians and the American Military Institute in recognition of his historical research. Most Confederate Marines served near Richmond or at the ports of Mobile and Savannah. Detachments served at Wilmington, Charleston, Pensacola and New Orleans and a few detachments saw service on the high seas. In the destruction and confusion which characterized the last months of the Confederacy, most Marine records seem to have been put to the torch. To gather needed information, Donnelly contacted state and local historical societies. Descriptions of Marine uniforms...

State and Local Historical Societies in the United States

Film & History: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Film and Television Studies - Volume 31, Number 2, 2001

This article considers the development of the network of museums in Ural Region in 1923–1934. The author examines the features of the Ural museums, such as formation, organization, management, typology, educational activities, interaction with the Soviet authorities, the relationship of museums and the Ural local history movement, as well as the influence of state policy. Museums emerged in the Urals in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. During the post-revolutionary period, i.e. in 1917–1923, in many ways due to the purposeful state policy, new institutions appeared in the museum network. The reorganization of the administrative and territorial division in the Urals influenced the interaction between the local authorities and the museums subordinate to them. The introduction of a new economic policy in 1921 positively influenced the activity of the museums. Local history organizations and societies actively conducted scientific and educational work on their basis. With the creation of the super-region, Ural Region, in 1924, the museum activity on its territory was directed at implementing the decisions of the RSFSR People’s Commissariat for Education. Based on data sent to the museum subdivision of the Ural Public Education Department, the author reconstructs the museum system of the region as of 1926. The results of the analysis make it possible to speak about the inefficiency of the accounting and control of museums by the Ural Public Education Department. In addition to the complex management of museums, the museum industry also faced other problems. Throughout the 1920s, the material and normative consolidation of the museum network took place. By the early 1930s, the rejection of the new economic policy was followed by the ideological rethinking of the museum’s functions. The museum and local history movement shifted its focus from education and excursion activity to propaganda and political-educational tasks. The author draws a conclusion about the contradictions in the development of museums in the Soviet Urals between the 1920s and the early 1930s characterized by the complexity of management, weakness of material resources, low financing of the creation of the new Soviet museum. The paper refers to documents of the State Archive of Sverdlovsk Region.

This chapter illustrates local and national history between 1880 and 1945. During this time, the subject matter of local history was recognised either as national history at the local level or the study of places through their economic history. Professional historians saw themselves researching and writing the history of the nation from the public records. Their interest in local history went only as far as searching for suitable examples to illustrate national history. The Public Record Office was their laboratory, and the English Historical Review was their scholarly journal. Local history stagnated intellectually, and its flag was kept fluttering only through the local societies. It was not until after the Second World War the great majority of counties had a record office, and it was only when a new range of material became available that local history took on new dimensions and began to escape the stigma with which it had been cursed since the late nineteenth century.

Thousands of small, private archives sit in attics, cupboard, church halls and computer hard drives around the country; they are the archives of local history societies. Simultaneously freed from the control of archives sector and government initiatives, and yet saturated with local peculiarities and biases, local history society archives can seem to be the very antithesis of the wider archives movement, apparently private and parochial, undemocratic and uncatalogued. Consequently, local history society archives are rarely included in ‘the politics of the archive’ discussions. But if the activity of archiving is to be understood as a political act, what are the politics and meanings of local history and their archives? In this article, I suggest that certain types of local history society archive collections can help us paint a picture of the everyday lives of working-class people in Britain in the twentieth century. They detail the small politics of people’s lives – family, work, leisure, and beliefs. They give ordinary people a name, a face, and a life lived. Moreover, the workings of local history society archives raise important questions about historical production, for these groups play a significant role in rescuing and preserving archival collections, and in creating and curating their own histories.