Washington Notes, November 1986

September and early October, the pe­riod covered by these notes, is the period when the Association’s head­quarters ceases trudging and begins sprinting, as the universities and col­leges that most of our members inhabit resume their fall activities. For us the period sees the beginning of the round of major committee meetings that twice yearly provide the major policy review and leadership for the AHA’s activities. On this same page, the Soviet Ameri­can Historical Colloquium biennial meeting is reported in detail. The plan­ning, arranging, and carrying out of this important responsibility took the better part of a week’s attention by headquar­ters staff.

Most importantly, however, as we go to press, the Research Division Commit­tee led off the fall parade of AHA committee meetings. The Research Di­vision Committee met for two days, Oc­tober 3-4 in Washington. Its agenda dealt with a number of questions of importance, but over half of its meeting time was taken up by consideration of whether the AHA should prepare a new edition of its Guide to Historical Literature, last published in 1961.

On this subject the committee met with a number of experts from the Association for the Bibliography of His­tory, the general editor of  the Society for Historians of American Foreign Re­lations recent bibliography, and repre­sentatives of several publishing houses. The committee, which is acting under a Council mandate to explore the project and report back to the Council, reached a number of conclusions regarding the audience to be addressed, the level of annotation of entries, the format, and the all-important question of funding. It was clear to the Committee and ex­pressed by the publishers’ representa­tives that only the AHA could undertake such a comprehensive project, even though it would seek breadth rather than depth of coverage.

The Committee expressed its grati­tude to the ABH for its valuable re­search and advice. The committee will be working on the project further dur­ing the autumn and expects to make a recommendation to the meeting of the Council in December about this proba­ble multi-year and certainly megabuck enterprise.

In addition to the Guide discussion, the Committee: reviewed nominations for members of the Board of Editors of the American Historical Review to fill end­ of-the-year vacancies; concluded that recipients of the maximum $1,000 re­search grant award under one of the AHA’s small grants programs would not be eligible under any other small grants program until five years later; reviewed a draft of the National Park Service’s revision of its thematic guidelines for history and prehistory in its Parks and Historic Landmarks; endorsed AAUP guidelines for non-sexist language in publications; discussed pending plans of the Society of American Archivists for certification of archivists; and agreed to recommend to the Council cosponsor­ship of a second conference on Russian America to be held at Sitka, Alaska next year.

On September 19 the Oversight Com­mittee of the History Teaching Alliance held a major session to review the work of the Alliance and to plan for its contin­ued success. All three sponsoring orga­nizations, the National Council for the Social Studies, the Organization of American Historians, and the AHA, were represented at the meeting. Two summers and one full academic year of activity have proved that the collabora­tive principle, bringing together second­ary and post-secondary teachers of his­tory in a continuing relationship, is a workable and fruitful idea. The Com­mittee considered and is recommending to the respective associations a proposal from the University of Florida to as­sume the long-term task of core support for the Alliance.

Elsewhere in this issue, is reported the continuing saga of the nomination of Dr. John Agresto to be Archivist of the United States (NCC News, p. 5). On September 10, at the Senate Committee hearing, the Association was represented in opposition to the nomination by Dr. Mary Berry, Civil Rights Commis­sioner and former vice-president of the Association.

The life of the Association is filled with unexpected events, but few are as pleasing as one that took place in late September. The headquarters was in­formed by a leading area bank that it had been remembered in the will of our former president, Dr. Bernadotte Schmitt, who passed away in 1969 and whose widow died a few months ago. The Association, along with the University of Chicago and several other educa­tional institutions, including Merton College, Oxford, where he was a stu­dent in 1906, will share in the estate. Many of our members will remember Bernadotte Schmitt affectionately, hav­ing known him during his long years at the University of Chicago and editing the Journal of Modern History, and during his tenure as Historian of the State Department.