[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Petition of Possible Interest [LONG]



Hello Everyone,
I've been asked  by Professor Kalman to post the
following communication and its appended
letter/petition to the Listesrve. They are
primarily directed toward historians, but I
thought they might also be of  interest to some of
our members. They concern a controversy over
publication of a doctoral dissertation completed
at Bryn Mawr School. (For complete details,
consult the Chronicle of Higher Education and
Baltimore Sun articles cited by Professor Kalman.
I would urge anyone who might be interested in
signing the petition to consult the articles
first.)
Please note that posting of this communication
does not imply its endorsement either by myself or
the Society of American Archivists.

Thanks,
Bob Schmidt
Archives Listserve Coordinator
Miami University Archives
Oxford, Ohio 45056
513-529-6720
rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu

_______________________________

Dear Colleagues:
        The enclosed is a letter (Part II) being
circulated to American
historians who teach or have taught in history
departments and law schools about The Bryn Mawr
School's effort to block publication of Andrea
Hamilton's book about the school.  If you are
unaware of the events that gave rise to the letter
below, it might be best to begin by reading the
accounts in *The Chronicle of Higher Education*
(April 26, 2002) and *The Baltimore Sun* (April 2,
2002).
        I had never heard of Andrea Hamilton or, I
should add, The Bryn
Mawr School (whose first official headmistress, I
have since learned, was
Edith Hamilton! [who is no relation of Andrea
Hamilton's]) before reading
the article in *The Chronicle.* As one who began
her career in the
archives (of Yale and Harvard Law Schools),
however, I was appalled by the story.  I wrote
Andrea Hamilton and her adviser, Bill McClay, to
ask how I could help.
        Since the school is currently reviewing
the situation and may be
disposed to reverse its decision, we all thought a
letter from American
historians urging it to do so might prove useful.
Copies would be sent to
David M. Funk, President of the Board of Trustees;
the interim Head of
School, Katy Dallam;  the incoming Head of School,
Maureen Walsh
Heffernan; and might be used by the media in
follow-up stories.
        To sign the letter, you need simply write
me
(kalman@history.ucsb.edu) with the message,
"sign," and provide your
title institutional affiliation.  thus for
example, x would write:
"sign, x, y chair of history, z university."  I
will take care of fedexing
it to Mr. Funk with the collected signatures.
        I would very much appreciate your signing
the letter, if you feel
it is possible for you to do so. I would also
appreciate your forwarding
this message to any American historians you think
might also sign it.  I
apologize in advance for any duplication in your
email traffic this may
cause, should this message come round more than
once, but I hope you will understand and will not
mind hitting "delete,"  if it does.  This is an
instance where we have a chance to make a real
difference in the life of a
young scholar *and* take a stand on an issue vital
to our profession.
        We need to have all signatures collected
by May 11, so time is of
the essence.
        Thank you very much for considering this
request!

Sincerely,
Laura
Laura Kalman
Professor of History
University of California, Santa Barbara

------------------------
      II  The Letter

May 12, 2002

David M. Funk, Esq.
President, The Bryn Mawr School Board of Trustees
Funk & Bolton, PA
100 Light Street, Suite 1000
Baltimore, MD  21202-1036

Dear Mr. Funk:

        As historians of the United States, we
write you about Andrea
Hamilton.  Some of us teach, or have taught, in
history departments,
others in law schools.  All of us have spent at
least part of our careers
working with manuscript sources and encouraging
graduate students to do the same.

        Dr. Hamilton did what graduate students in
American history are
taught to do: She spent days poring over her
sources and months
organizing, interpreting and contextualizing her
findings.  Dr. Hamilton
seems to us to have followed every customary
professional protocol and to have entered into her
research with the full support of the school.

        We are distressed, then, that an
institution, particularly a
distinguished educational one, has apparently
chosen to suppress
publication of her book, and has provided no
explanation for its abrupt
and drastic change in position.  On the basis of
the appended accounts in
*The Chronicle of Higher Education* and *The
Baltimore Sun,* it would seem that Bryn Mawr
School's behavior to date has had the lamentable
effect of blocking--or, at the very least,
unconscionably delaying--the entrance of a fully
qualified young scholar into our profession.

        On the basis of these same published
reports, it also appears to
us that Dr. Hamilton reasonably assumed that Bryn
Mawr School officials
consented to the book's publication in late 1998.