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Acknowledgments A project as large and complex as this one inevitably incurs many debts on its way to completion. It began as an affiliation among most of the authors in consulting with the professional staff of the Ulster American Folk Park in Omagh, Northern Ireland, about the expansion of its outdoor exhibits depicting the North American frontier and the particular locations of signature Scots-Irish settlement. Thus we are in debt particularly to Philip Mowat, head of emigration for the Folk Park and the National Museums of Northern Ireland, for bringing us together and underwriting our initial collaboration. In return, the museum received a concept and design for exhibit development in a physical plan that is also reflected in the intellectual plan of this volume. Insofar as each of the chapters herein reflects themes treated at specific outdoor structures and interpretative sites, the book as a whole serves as a companion volume to the exhibit. Conceived in the service of this exhibit, however, the project has taken on an academic life of its own and stands today on its strengths as a collective study of one of the most important immigrant groups affecting American demographic and cultural identity during the previous three centuries. Each of us has incurred numerous obligations in the creation of our articles , but we are all indebted collectively to those who read and commented on the manuscript at various stages of its development, namely, Brian Lambkin and Patrick Fitzgerald, director and lecturer/development officer respectively at the Center for Migration Studies at the Ulster American Folk Park, and the anonymous readers recruited by the University of Tennessee Press for manuscript review. For facilitating the various meetings that brought us faceto -face over the ideas that now populate this volume, we are grateful to the x Acknowledgments staff of the Ulster American Folk Park and to John Herbst, director of the Conner Prairie Museum in Fishers, Indiana. At Shenandoah University, my home institution, work on the volume was eased and speeded by the excellent aid of Sandy Snyder, administrative assistant for the history department, and numerous work-study students in whom the department indulges but most notably Josh Cooper, Dan Radomski, Denise Mitchell, and Charles Buabin. The comprehensive index is owing to the superb work of Robert Grogg, and the generous funding provided by the Woltz-Winchester Foundation of Winchester, Virginia. At the University of Tennessee Press, editor and now director Scot Danforth stood steadfastly by this project through the inevitable delays of complex endeavors. David Miller, author of this volume’s lead article, performed the yeoman service of drafting maps for each chapter, and all of the authors in many large and small ways advanced the project with advice, critique, and encouragement at key moments in its development. Without their support, this effort would have foundered long ago. The reward and pleasure of completing it is owing in large measure to their good cheer, high standards of scholarship, and fine spirit of collaboration. ...

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