Editor's Page

Looking Ahead

The production schedule for the journal is such that I write with snow on the ground amid freezing temperatures, whilst you, dear reader, are no doubt enjoying a balmy spring day or at least the relief of air conditioning. The annual meeting at Rochester will soon be here (the program is included with this issue of JER); the OAH will have been long gone. Yet it is not too early to start planning for the next annual meeting.

In 2011, SHEAR will return to its home base in Philadelphia, July 14 to 17. The Library Company of Philadelphia, the American Philosophical Society, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Independence National Historical Park, and the Constitution Center are among the well-known sites in the city. But there are lesser known treasures that should entice SHEARites to pay another visit as well. For religious historians there are significant archives maintained by the Lutherans, Presbyterians, Quakers, and Roman Catholics in the city and nearby suburbs. Historians of science and medicine will find much of interest at the Chemical Heritage Society, the Mutter Museum, the archives of Pennsylvania Hospital, the Academy of Natural Sciences, and the Wagner Free Institute. The Academy of the Fine Arts has a strong collection of nineteenth-century American art, as does the Museum of Art, and, further afield, the Winterthur Museum in nearby Delaware. But for the frissons of the gothic imagination, no place surpasses Eastern State Penitentiary. Military history has not fared so well in the Quaker City: The Civil War museum is currently closed and does not expect to reopen—in new quarters—until 2014. A projected museum of the American Revolution has yet to materialize.

This just scratches the surface of what's available in addition to the excitement of the annual meeting itself. Watch for conference updates on the website.

President Rosemarie Zagarri Reports from the AHA Meeting in San Diego

While much of the country was buried under snow and suffering from arctic temperatures, the McNeil Center and SHEAR hosted a very lively and well-attended reception on January 8, 2010 at the AHA in sunny San Diego. Thanks to everyone who came!

SHEAR is now entering a new phase of development. For the first time this year, SHEAR has offered six Graduate Student Conference Awards, to provide support for students presenting papers at the annual meeting. Please apply next year, or encourage your students to apply. See http://faculty.chass.ncsu.edu/ctfriend/SHEAR1.htm.

In addition, SHEAR, in conjunction with the University of Pennsylvania Press, will present the SHEAR Manuscript Prize, for an exceptional book-length manuscript pertaining to the history of North America from 1776 to 1861. This will be an annual prize awarded for the next ten years.

Finally, plans are in the works to offer another of the highly acclaimed SHEAR/Mellon Undergraduate Seminars during Summer 2011 in Philadelphia. For further information on any of these programs, please consult the SHEAR website at www.shear.org.