Background Documents
To explain some of the context for the decision to accept the pamphlets as a project, the selection of authors and topics, and the difficulties encountered in their preparation, we include the following documents. It is worth noting that the series introduction and all of the minutes of meetings in this site were prepared by the executive secretary, Guy Stanton Ford, whose 19th-century style of writing makes the prose sound a bit arcane.
A
special meeting organized and paid for by the War Department, at which the Association
agreed to prepare the pamphlets. Council
receives a preliminary report on the formation of the Historical Service Board
in Washington D.C., under the directorship of Theodore C. Blegen (on leave from
his position as Dean at the University of Minnesota). Council
weighs whether to renew the contract for the Board, given difficulties in getting
the pamphlets into print. It might reflect some concern on the Army’s part about
whether the AHA would agree to renew that Major General Frederick Osborn of the
Army’s Morale Services Division came to the meeting to make a formal request.
The Association agrees, but Blegen resigns as Director. A
further review of the series and its ongoing difficulties, after Guy Stanton Ford
assumed the directorship following Blegen's return to Minnesota. A
final report on the conclusion of the Historical Services Board by Ford.
Foreword to the Bound Edition of the Pamphlets
Abstract
of Executive Committee Meeting Minutes, September 2, 1943
Excerpt:
Minutes of the AHA Council Meeting, December 28, 1943
Excerpt:
Minutes of the AHA Executive Committee Meeting, June 24, 1944
Excerpt
from the Report of the Executive Secretary and Managing Editor, 1944
Excerpt:
Report of the Executive Secretary and Managing Editor, 1945