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.

Foreword to the Bound Edition of the Pamphlets

Colonel Spaulding's Report to the AHA Executive Committee, September 2, 1943

Abstract of Executive Committee Meeting Minutes, September 2, 1943

A special meeting organized and paid for by the War Department, at which the Association agreed to prepare the pamphlets.

Excerpt: Minutes of the AHA Council Meeting, December 28, 1943

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).

Excerpt: Minutes of the AHA Executive Committee Meeting, June 24, 1944

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.

Excerpt: Report of the Executive Secretary and Managing Editor, 1944

A further review of the series and its ongoing difficulties, after Guy Stanton Ford assumed the directorship following Blegen's return to Minnesota.

Excerpt: Report of the Executive Secretary and Managing Editor, 1945

A final report on the conclusion of the Historical Services Board by Ford.