Back Home	Seminar on Records and Archives in Society
Course This Week Past Readings History Archives Projects	Silvia Hansman, HIST 0647, Spring1999 Van Tassel, David. "Historical Organization as Aids to History" in In support of clio: Essays in Memory of Herbert A. Kellar , edited by William Hesseltine and Donald McNeil, 127-151 State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison, 1958. Historical Organization as Aids to History The question proposed at the beginning of the chapter is: what do historical organizations to aid and promote historical research and writing? in fact the paper is an historical recount of the mutual influence of historical organization and the prevalent historical trends. State and local organizations were the first to appear after the war for independence (1791 Massachusetts Historical Society). They were found in urban centers that combine a source of wealth and a group of educated men active in the expansion of the region. In a time of competition between states, history was a mean of emphasizing locality's right to an important position in the nation. Collection Policies: In the first stage historical societies aimed to collect data and preserve evidence of past events but were not interested in promoting general history studies. The collection policies were broad: "...whatever may relate to the natural, civil, literary, ecclesiastical and aboriginal history...". In the 1880s' academic historians, mainly interested in political and legal history, took policy making positions in historical societies they tended to narrow the scope of collecting to fit their interest. The fragmentation of academic research in the early XX century separate history from anthropology, geology, economics. Recently (1958) historians tend back to broaden their interest and some local societies tend accordingly to enlarge their programs as in collecting materials on business, labor and medical history. The first publications concentrate on Documents. History magazines were rare in the XIX century. In 1950 there were a hundred and thirty historical magazines. As historians enter the ranks of historical institutions magazines facilitate scholarly publication (Maryland Magazine1906) In recent years several historical institutions took the role of university press. The first national organization was The American Historical Association (1884). It was created by professional historians that scorned the existing organizations for its locality and romantic nostalgia. They view history as a scientifically discipline and concentrate in scholarly publication and started a program of rationalization to centralize government papers and to gain national founding.The AHA was reluctant to co operate with state and local associations. When local organizations tried to organize AHA blocked the initiative by creating the conference of State and Local Historical Societies (1904) under their institutional umbrella. Regional organization were created by historians not entirely satisfied with a single yearly meeting of the AHA and was guided by the policy of promoting the study of regional history and the collaboration between State Associations (Pacific coast branch ofAHA1904). The difference in interests and needs of different groups brought a movement to the creation of the Association for State and Local History (1940). In the decade of the twenties: Family societies, trusts or libraries started with family papers but many are managed by professional archivists or historians and their scope is far beyond the family papers (The Truman Library concentrates on foreign affairs). Ethnic historical agencies were created at times of heavy immigration (The American Jewish Historical Society 1892) and times of activity to win equal civil rights (The Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, 1916). Also were created at a time when immigration quotas were disputed and different groups wanted to emphasize their the contribution to the country (American Swedish Historical museum,1926). Topical organization represented areas of specialization among historians but also were product of nostalgia as Steamship Historical Society Trends Since 1946 Patriotic enthusiasm after the war and the tensions of the Cold war brought demands for a Americanism. Historical agencies start emphasizing local history as the foundation of American democracy. State historical societies lead the way in Popularization of history. They relied in two different needs. The first is to gain financial support to carry out expensive collecting and publication programs. The second is public education. A project that attempted to prove that history is useful to society was developed in Iowa: trained researchers analyzed current problems of the state from an historical perspective in the belief that it will aid state leaders to make better decisions. The selling of local history for its economical benefits became more prevalent than the emphasizing the utility of history in the solution of current problems. The scarcity of teaching positions brought many historians to work historical societies. They were not trained for organizational problems and needed Professionalization. By 1952 the Library School of The University of Wisconsin inaugurate a course taught by the staff of the State Historical Society. Since 1940 the Association for State and Local History functions as a professional agency.