February 2017

In a corridor at the AHA townhouse hangs this panoramic photograph of the “Founders Dinner,” which took place at the 1934 annual meeting, to celebrate the Association’s 50th anniversary. Waldo Gifford Leland (center dais table, behind bouquet), former executive secretary of the AHA, was “toastmaster” of the banquet. Of the 41 founders present in 1884, 5 were alive in 1934, but only 2 were able to attend the dinner: to Leland’s right is Clarence Bowen, the AHA’s first treasurer; to Leland’s left is J. Franklin Jameson, founding editor of the American Historical Review. A glance at this issue will prove that the fascinating photo doesn’t mirror the annual meeting of today: a place where historians of all backgrounds and fields come together to advance our common project. Yet the image’s uncanny reflection of the past reminds us that the Association must always strive for democracy and inclusiveness.