2008 American Association for State and Local History Annual Meeting
Sponsored by American Association for State and Local History
| When | September 9, 2008 - September 12, 2008 |
| Where | Rochester, New York |
| For More Information | AASLH (615) 320-3203 membership@AASLH.org |
The origin of AASLH can be traced back to the extraordinary flowering of state and local history that occurred in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In 1904, the American Historical Association, itself a fledgling professional body, established the semi-autonomous Conference of State and Local Historical Societies to serve the leaders of those agencies. In 1939, a group of Conference members, chaired by Christopher C. Crittenden, director of the North Carolina Department of Archives and History, discussed and then proposed the creation of an independent entity. Its job would be to better coordinate the activities of historical societies and stimulate the writing and teaching of state and local history in North America.
On December 27, 1940, the Conference of State and Local History met and disbanded itself. Then, the American Association for State and Local History was born. Its first charter stated that AASLH's purpose was, simply, "the promotion of effort and activity in the fields of state, provincial, and local history in the United States and Canada."
