2014 OAH Annual Meeting Information

It's never too early to starting thinking about history conference plans, is it? With that in mind we're pleased to notify our members and friends that the Organization of American Historians has posted its 2014 annual conference information. 

The theme for the 2014 OAH Annual Meeting will be Crossing Borders. 

"The history of the United States is a product of migrations – internal and international. Along with people, goods and ideas crossed these borders, reshaping the composition and character of the American people. Sometimes the borders and boundaries were physical, as when international migrants crossed oceans and continents, or when large numbers of individuals migrated from one region of the country to another, or when the lure of wealth and influence led to foreign invasions and conquests. Those on the move were accompanied by bacteria or viruses, microorganisms whose migration across borders also shaped human experience. Borders were also framed by culture – racial, ethnic, class, and gender differences that perennially redefined our population and social order. The theme for the 2014 conference seeks to examine, in all their complexity, a broad array of border crossings and “encounters” in US history, highlighting the contributions and challenges presented by those who transcended borders to redefine their lives or flee the constraints of their pasts."

The annual conference will be held in Atlanta, Georgia at the Hilton Atlanta, April 10-13, 2014.

Historians and history educators please note! Proposal submissions will be accepted starting January 1, 2013. The submission deadline is February 15, 2013. 

For complete conference information go to this link today. 

2013 Organization of American Historians Annual Meeting

In April, 2013 the Organization of American Historians will be holding its annual meeting in San Francisco, California. Hawaii history educators, historians and students are encouraged to attend. 

The theme for the 2013 OAH Annual Meeting is Entangled Histories: Connections, Crossings, and Constraints in U.S. History.

"The history of the United States is one of entanglement: trans-Atlantic, trans-Pacific, and cross-border interactions; conflicts and collaborations based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexuality, and class; intersections and crossings at all scales from the global to the intimate. The conference theme seeks to examine and complicate a broad range of “entanglements” in US history, paying attention to both the possibilities as well as the limitations of these interactions."

To register for the conference go to this link.

The annual meeting will be held at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square. Go to this link for lodging information for conference attendees. 

Go to this link for the conference program. 

'The Civil War and American Art' at Smithsonian American Art Museum

This morning's Washington Times featured this article about a new Civil War exhibit at the Smithsonian American Art Museum:


The Smithsonian American Art Museum’s new exhibition, “The Civil War and American Art,” which opens today, has two stars. One is the enslaved black American; the other is Winslow Homer.
The issues of emancipation and racial equality – Frederick Douglass‘ “great, paramount, imperative and all commanding question” – are addressed in some of the exhibition’s most moving paintings.

The exhibit "examines how America’s artists represented the impact of the Civil War and its aftermath. The exhibition follows the conflict from palpable unease on the eve of war, to heady optimism that it would be over with a single battle, to a growing realization that this conflict would not end quickly and a deepening awareness of issues surrounding emancipation and the need for reconciliation. Genre and landscape painting captured the transformative impact of the war, not traditional history painting." 

Hawaii's distance from this exhibit is not necessarily an issue for those of you interested! 

Go to this link for a slideshow of selected works. This link on Flickr features photos of the opening of the exhibit. 

Click this link for a presentation delivered by Eleanor Jones Harvey on six featured paintings.

For educators there is a Teacher's Guide available via download free of charge. 

Free Teaching Materials from the Korematsu Institute

We received the following from the Fred T. Korematsu Institute:

Fred Korematsu is remembered for his courageous fight against the Japanese American Internment which led to the WWII 1944 Supreme Court case, Korematsu v. United States. Fred Korematsu was exonerated almost 40 years later and was eventually awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Clinton.

The Korematsu Institute  wants to send you a FREE Teaching Kit that helps teachers instruct on the life of Fred Korematsu and the overall Japanese American internment during World War II.

Please inform your teachers about the FREE Teaching Kit.  Help us spread the word about this pivotal story in U.S. History.

The Korematsu Institute has a wealth of free teaching materials that help students learn about Fred and the Japanese American internment during World War II.  

Some items include:

·  a K-12 teaching guide,

·  a Fred Korematsu classroom poster,

·  the 24 minute version of the Emmy Award winning video, “Of Civil Wrongs and Rights, the Fred Korematsu Story.”

Fred Korematsu Day is celebrated on his birthday each year, January 30.  This is a good time to connect Fred’s story with other civil rights champions, examine key civil liberties issues, and remember the stories of the 120,000 people (approximately 70% were American citizens) who were interned in concentration camps without due process of law. 

We will be attending the National Council for Social Studies Conference in Seattle, Washington, this November.   Please visit us for a Meet and Greet and our Conference Presentation:

·  Meet and Greet:  Saturday, November 17, 11:30-12:30 at the Constitutional Rights Foundation booth in the Exhibit Hall

·  Workshop:  Sunday, November 18, 8:00-10:00 am:  Stories of Civil Rights Champions:  Cesar Chavez and Fred Korematsu

U.S. Veterans History Project, Library of Congress

“Our obligations to our country never cease but with our lives.”
 John Adams

The Veterans History Project of the American Folklife Center collects, preserves, and makes accessible the personal accounts of American war veterans so that future generations may hear directly from veterans and better understand the realities of war. The Project collects first-hand accounts of U.S. Veterans from the following wars: World War I (1914-1920) World War II (1939-1946) Korean War (1950-1955) Vietnam War (1961-1975) Persian Gulf War (1990-1995) Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts (2001-present) In addition, those U.S. citizen civilians who were actively involved in supporting war efforts (such as war industry workers, USO workers, flight instructors, medical volunteers, etc.) are also invited to share their valuable stories. To search the database go to this link, and share with your students.

The Hawaii History Blog Project Launched by History Education Hawaii

History Education Hawaii has launched a new, online-based innovative program. The Hawaii History Blog Project at www.hawaiihistoryblogs.blogspot.com. 

Representing a new and dynamic learning destination, the Hawaii History Blog Project offers producers and users of historical information an opportunity to expand the applications of historical literacy on a global scale. 

Participants are invited and encouraged to use their historical blogs to construct historical communities through the presentation of historical information as well as engage in scholarly discussion. 

"We view historical blogging as a facilitative forum where historians, educators, students and history buffs can globally connect with others regardless of location who share specific interests and can unleash their curiosity," said the blog project's founder, Jeffrey Bingham Mead, the head of History Education Hawaii, an allied organization of the National Council for History Education based in College Park, Maryland. 

Mead added, "The increased popularity of portable hand-held devices challenges all members and advocates of the historical literacy community to find new, innovative methods of providing ready-access to historical information. Capitalizing on the demand for portability and informational access, as well as social networking, we believe is key to improving and transforming history learning in and outside the classroom. Confining our efforts to classrooms is simply not enough. " 

"The Hawaii History Blog Project, which is part of our Hawaii Lyceum of History program, is not a substitute nor an effort to 'dumb-down' historical scholarship, such as found in the research, production and submission of term papers, for example. Historical blogs feature original, high-quality content not readily found in traditional textbooks. In addition, many history educators and students do not have the time or access to archived materials. What the emergence of historical blogs does seek to accomplish is engage history learners in producing the content they desire to learn and to share with others. Historical blogs also invite inquiry, commentary and discussion regardless of location."

"We issue a challenge to our Hawaii-based history educators, history students and historians who have a love of history to create quality blog sites to add to our blog roll."

To learn more about the Hawaii History Blog Project go to www.hawaiihistoryblogs.blogspot.com/

History Education Hawaii, Inc., (HEH) -formerly the History Education Council of Hawaii founded in 2006 - is an independent, nonpartisan, not-for-profit corporation serving the history learning community of the state of Hawaii that:

• Promotes leadership, study, research, effective, innovative history teaching and learning best practices.
  
• Collaborates with educational institutions, facilitates interactive, professional and interactive programs involving history-buffs, history educators and students, teacher-candidates, historians and historic preservationists, foundations, museums as well as the government, military and business communities of Hawaii.
  
• Envisions an active, dynamic historical learning community where lifelong learners set a standard of the highest-quality scholarship, and are literate explorers of the past for the benefit and enrichment of the present and the future.
  
• Deems historical literacy as vital to continued citizen participation in the democratic process though the dissemination of scholarly works using the latest modern technological advancements.

American Antiquarian Society: Autumn 2012 Edition of Common Place Published

This month, Common-place is delighted to republish a long lost chapter from Frances Ellen Watkins Harper’s serialized temperance novel, Sowing and Reaping (1876).  

With a fine (and undergraduate-friendly) introduction by literary historian Eric Gardner, who discovered the chapter in the American Antiquarian Society’s serials collection, this is a must read for anyone interested in African American history and letters.  

Now that we’ve whetted your appetite for nineteenth-century literary culture, you might want to follow Jeffery D. Groves in his quest to build an exact replica of Isaiah Thomas’s storied printing press, no power tools allowed.  

And before you dutifully turn your clocks back this weekend, take a look at Alexis McCrossen’s fascinating account of a century of timekeeping in Philadelphia.  

These stories, and more, can be found here.