Thirty Years! Already?

September 21, 2011

This month, and this issue of our newsletter, marks the thirtieth anniversary of the founding of the American Social History Project. This seems the appropriate moment to thank all of you for your years—decades!—of support, collaboration, and good will.

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Thirty. Such a full, round, and venerable number leaves us amazed, proud, and a little chastened. Our achievements are based on a long, long, long list of talented and farsighted staff members and collaborators the combined number of which would fill a good-sized auditorium. And our numbers continue to grow as each new effort and project adds more names to the ASHP/CML roster.

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Looking back after so many years and so many projects, we are happy to admit that we learned from all of them; indeed, during our prolonged march through decades of successive “cutting edge” media, we’ve accumulated a good deal of knowledge as well as a fair amount of humility. But, overall, it’s been a good and fruitful journey and we are excited by the newest resources we’ve created (our extensive and growing HERB! database) and latest initiatives we’ve started (our 2012 NEH Summer Institute—see below). As we enter our fourth decade, these and other activities herald new approaches as they also remain true to our long-term commitment to democratize and enhance learning about the U.S. past.