Mississippi Valley Historical Association

Mississippi Valley Historical Association
Organization of American Historians · Public domain · source
Name	Mississippi Valley Historical Association
Caption	Logo of the Mississippi Valley Historical Association (historical)
Formation	1907
Founders	Frederick Jackson Turner; James A. James; Reuben Gold Thwaites
Type	Scholarly society
Location	United States (Midwest)
Membership	Scholars, librarians, archivists
Language	English
Leader title	President
Affiliations	American Historical Association; Organization of American Historians

Mississippi Valley Historical Association was a regional scholarly society founded in 1907 that fostered historical research on the trans-Mississippi West and the Mississippi Valley region. The association brought together historians, archivists, librarians, and educators from institutions such as Harvard University, University of Chicago, University of Wisconsin–Madison, and Missouri Historical Society to promote scholarship on figures like Lewis and Clark Expedition, Ulysses S. Grant, Abraham Lincoln, and events including the Louisiana Purchase and Missouri Compromise. Over the first half of the twentieth century it published journals, organized annual meetings, and influenced archival practice at repositories such as the Library of Congress and National Archives and Records Administration.

History

The association was founded at a meeting in 1907 attended by scholars from University of Michigan, Yale University, Johns Hopkins University, and state historical societies including the Wisconsin Historical Society and Ohio Historical Society. Early leadership included prominent historians associated with the Frontier Thesis such as Frederick Jackson Turner, and editors linked to the Missouri Historical Review and the Iowa Journal of History and Politics. Its formative decades coincided with national trends exemplified by the American Historical Association and the professionalization movement led by figures like Charles A. Beard and James Harvey Robinson. The association navigated debates over regionalism, sectional memory, and interpretations of the Civil War and Reconstruction Era while responding to archival developments driven by archivists from the Library Company of Philadelphia and the Newberry Library.

Mission and Objectives

The association's charter emphasized preservation of primary sources, promotion of original research, and dissemination of scholarship across institutions such as Smithsonian Institution, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Missouri Historical Society. Objectives included supporting documentary editing projects similar to those of the Adams Papers Editorial Project and the Papers of Benjamin Franklin, encouraging regional curricula at universities like Ohio State University and University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign, and fostering cooperation among archives at Duke University, Princeton University, and Columbia University. The association also aimed to influence public history through partnerships with museums such as the Henry Ford Museum and historic sites like Fort Snelling.

Membership and Organization

Membership drew professors, graduate students, state historians, and librarians from institutions including Kansas State University, Tulane University, Vanderbilt University, University of Minnesota, and Louisiana State University. Governance featured an elected presidency, council, and editorial board with ties to the American Antiquarian Society and the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture. Committees coordinated topical sections on subjects like Native American history (scholars associated with Smithsonian Institution and Bureau of American Ethnology), Western expansion (linked to Lewis and Clark Expedition studies), and archival preservation (liaising with the National Archives and Records Administration and the Library of Congress).

Publications and Journals

The association published proceedings and helped sustain periodicals akin to the Mississippi Valley Historical Review, which later became influential among journals such as the Journal of American History, American Historical Review, and the Pacific Historical Review. Edited essays, source editions, and bibliographies circulated to university libraries like Harvard Library, New York Public Library, and research centers such as the Newberry Library. Special issues addressed documentary projects comparable to the Papers of Thomas Jefferson and the Lincoln Papers, annotated guides paralleling the work of the American Council of Learned Societies and bibliographic contributions reminiscent of the Bibliographical Society of America.

Conferences and Meetings

Annual meetings rotated through cities with major archival holdings—Chicago, St. Louis, Minneapolis, New Orleans, and Cincinnati—and featured panels featuring historians from Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, and state historical societies. Sessions often engaged topics connected to the Missouri Compromise, Mexican–American War, and regional economic histories involving river commerce tied to the Mississippi River and ports such as New Orleans. Conferences invited speakers affiliated with the American Historical Association, the Social Science Research Council, and university presses including University of Chicago Press and Oxford University Press.

Awards and Recognition

The association established prizes and fellowships modeled on awards from the American Philosophical Society and the Guggenheim Fellowship program to honor scholarship on figures like Ralph Waldo Emerson-era influences and events such as the Erie Canal development. Recognitions were conferred at meetings and included lifetime achievement citations for historians associated with the University of Wisconsin–Madison and University of Iowa, dissertation prizes for scholars from Indiana University and University of Kansas, and archival service awards comparable to honors from the Society of American Archivists.

Legacy and Evolution into the Organization of American Historians

Mid-twentieth-century debates about national scope and inclusivity paralleled discussions within the American Historical Association and led members to re-evaluate regional identity amid changing historiographical currents exemplified by scholars of Progressive historiography and the emerging New Social History. In 1965 the association reorganized and adopted the name Organization of American Historians, aligning its mission with broader American studies networks including the American Studies Association and the Social Science History Association. This transformation linked the association's regional archival infrastructure and publication traditions to national projects such as university-based documentary editing initiatives and major monograph series from university presses like the University of North Carolina Press and University of Illinois Press.

Category:Historical societies of the United States