SESAH-The First Twenty Years: A History and Reminiscence Robert M. Craig I n the fall of 2002, SESAH (Southeast Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians) will hold its twentieth annual meeting, a milestone which cannot pass without a certain reflection upon, and recording of, the SESAH at Poplar Forest, October 2000 (Travis McDonald) society's history. It seems like only yesterday, as SESAH entered its eleventh year, that I was asked to pen an earlier brief history, and now another decade has passed! But as I remind myselfthat I started restoring my Victorian house in Atlanta the year before SESAH was formed, I am aware more than anyone except my wife of how very long SESAH has been around. As an organization of scholars, SESAH has been something of a balancing act. It is, first and foremost, a local chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians, but SESAH, as an eleven-state regional society, is not typical of SAH local chapters; indeed SESAH is legally an independent society. Claimed by some members of SECAC [Southeastern College Art Conference] to be an affiliate, SESAH has never been so formally, although it maintains a friendly relationship as a sister society to SECAC, has a few members in common, and occasionally holds joint annual meetings, as it will do this fall in Mobile. SESAH's members are sometimes employed by the National Park Service (NPS) or State Historic Preservation Offices (SHPOs) (and as preservationists many SESAH members participate in inventory surveys and documentation of historic architectural resources in the Southeast), but SESAH is not, per se, a preservation organization. Members of SESAH are authors of the Buildings ofthe United States book series, compiling those volumes covering states from Louisiana to Virginia and Arkansas to Florida, and SESAH has regularly supported the series with annual donations, but BUS is a project of the national society, not of local chapter(s) of SAH. Although SESAH's focus is architecture, we are not affiliated with the American Institute ofArchitects (AlA). Our members include scholars active in material culture and vernacular studies , but we are not affiliated with the Vernacular Architecture Forum, the Society for Commercial Archaeology, or the Popular Culture Association. And finally, although many SESAH members teach in schools of architecture, we are not a regional society of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA). In summary, ARRIS I ROBERT M. CRAIG SESAH is not SAH, SECAC, NPS, SHPO, BUS, AlA, VAF, SCA, PCA, or ACSA. We are (( " see-saw. If the above alphabet soup describes what SESAH is not, how might we describe who we are? Our Constitution-bylaw does so succinctly: The Southeast Chapter, Society of Architectural Historians is a regional society dedicated to the promotion of scholarship on architecture and related subjects and to an interchange of ideas among architectural historians, architects, preservationists , and others involved in professions relating to the built environment. This means we are not Americanists exclusively , not local historians with interests limited to the Southeast, but the society is open to the widest range of scholarship among professionals interested in the built environment and its history . The Constitution continues to define SESAH's mission: To further this purpose, an annual meeting is held; a professional scholarly journal, ARRIS, and a newsletter are published; and local meetings as well as publications are encouraged and, if possible, supported. Consistent with this purpose, cooperation shall be encouraged between the Southeast Chapter, Society of Architectural Historians and other organizations in the region with mutually reinforcing goals. Hence the alphabet soup on our members' vitae. As SESAH treasurer, I should not fail to mention (as I write this a mere few weeks after April rs), that SESAH is also a voluntary association incorporated in the State ofArkansas (May 24, 1991) and subsequently (August 7, 1992) granted federal income tax exemption under section sor (a) of the Internal Revenue Code as a sor (c) (3) organization ). Your contributions may be tax deductible! How did all this come about? Ironically, the ball started rolling toward the establishment of SESAH as a result of the initiative of four individuals none of whom is still a SESAH member nor has been for most of...