We reproduce below the following announcement to members of the Association who have gone before. (It was not until 1888 that the AHA began meeting in December):
The American Historical Association
Organized at Saratoga, NY, September 10, 1884 for the promotion of historical studies.
Fourth Meeting to be held in Boston and Cambridge
May 21–24, 1887
President: Justin Windsor, Librarian, Harvard University, Cambridge Massachusetts.
Vice-Presidents:
Charles Kendall Adams, President, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. William F. Poole, Librarian, Public Library, Chicago, IL.
Treasurer: Clarence Winthrop Bowen, No. 251 Broadway, New York.
Secretary:
Herbert B. Adams, Associate Professor of History, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD.
Executive Council: (In addition to the above)
William F. Allen, Professor of History, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI.
Charles Deane, Cambridge, MA.
Franklin B. Dexter, Professor of American History, Yale College, New Haven, CT.
William Wirt Henry, Richmond, VA.
The American Historical Association will hold its Fourth Annual Meeting, May 21–24, in Boston and Cambridge, with morning and evening sessions. There will be an afternoon excursion to Wellesley College on Monday, May 23, an afternoon in Cambridge, Tuesday, May 24, a historical field-day and a dinner in Old Plymouth on Wednesday, May, 25.
Inasmuch as many members of the American Economic Association are also members of the Historical, it has seemed advisable for both bodies to convene at the same time and place, with joint sessions for papers of general interest and with separate sessions for matters of a more special nature.
The headquarters of both Associations will be The Brunswickh, in Boston, at which hotel all distinctly historical meet ings will be held. The only joint session in Boston will be on the opening night, Saturday, May 21 at 8 p.m., in Hunting ton Hall, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where all subsequent eco nomic sessions will be held. At the open ing meeting addresses will be given (1) by GENERAL FRANCIS A. WALKER, President of the Economic Association, and (2) by PROFESSOR JUSTIN WINSOR, President of the Historical Association. Immediately after these introductory addresses there will be a reception of both Associations in the Museum of Fine Arts. Members are urged to be present at the opening exercises on Saturday evening. Sunday will afford an opportunity for needed rest, personal courtesies, and private conference. Monday and Tuesday will be full days.
A total of sixteen papers were delivered at the Fourth Annual Meeting. They were:
Monday Morning May 23
“Diplomatic Prelude to the Seven Years War,” by Herbert Elmer Mills, Fellow in History, Cornell University.
“Silas Deane,” by Charles Isham, of the New York Historical Society.
“The Constitutional Relations of the American Colonies to the English Government at the Commencement of the American Revolution,” by Judge Mellen Chamberlain.
Monday Evening
“Historical Sketch of the Peace Negotiations of 1783,” by Hon. John Jay of New York.
“The Northwest in the American Revolution,” by William F. Poole, LLD of Chicago, Vice-President of the Association.
“The Parliamentary Experiment in Germany,” Dr. Kuno Francke of Harvard University.
Tuesday Morning May 24
“A Study in Swiss History,” by John Martin Vincent of the Johns Hopkins University.
“The State Constitutions,” by Dr. Francis Newton Thorpe of the University of Pennsylvania.
“The Spaniard in New Mexico,” by General W.W.H. Davis of Doylestown, PA.
Tuesday Afternoon
Joint Historical and Economic Session
“Our Legal-Tender Decisions, a Study in our Constitutional History,’ by Pro fessor E.J. James of the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
“The Finances of the Revolution,” by Dr. Albert Bushnell Hart of Harvard University.
“The Study of Statistics in American Colleges,” by Colonel Carroll D. Wright, Commission of US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Tuesday Evening
“The Government of London,” by Professor Arthur M. Wheeler of Yale University.
”The American Church in History,” by Dr. Philip B. Schaff of Union Theological Seminary, New York.
Paper by Edward G. Mason, Esq. of Chicago.
“Brief Report on Historical Studies in Canada,” by George Steward, Jr., President of the Historical Society, Quebec.
Wednesday May 25
Excursion to Old Plymouth. Both Associations will dine at the Samoset House.
