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Re: Petition of Possible Interest [LONG]



there is a tiny change made in section II, paragraph 5, because an
archivist pointed out an error in my wording!  i am, as always, grateful
to the archivists for setting me straight.
        i've indicated the way the sentence should read in caps below.
laura kalman
][X]Y_Z]Y

On Thu, 9 May 2002, Bob Schmidt wrote:

> 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.
> From our perspective,
> Dr. Hamilton has been unfairly prevented from
> publishing research derived
> from sources that she was encouraged to use.
>
>         As a matter of fact, however, the
> dissertation is already
> available for public review.  University
> Microfilms (UMI) has published
> Dr. Hamilton's dissertation, without, so far as we
> are aware, eliciting
> any objection from Bryn Mawr School.  Thus Dr.
> Hamilton's research is now AVAILABLE FOR PUBLIC
> REVIEW and for purchase (www.umi.com), and a
> potential source for quotation or citation by
> almost anyone.  It seems
> ironic and unfair to us that only Dr. Hamilton,
> the dissertation's author,
> would prove the exception.
>
>         Reasonable people may differ about Dr.
> Hamilton's interpretations
> and conclusions, as we do about all subjects of
> historical
> scholarship.  This is our trade, and this is what
> we do.  Part of our
> mission is to bring new sources to light and
> debate historians' findings
> in the marketplace of scholarly ideas.  When the
> subjects of scholarly
> inquiry engage in the apparently arbitrary
> suppression of responsible
> scholarly work, it fatally undermines our pursuit
> of that mission.  This
> case thus possesses larger significance for all of
> us who are engaged in
> the enterprise of historical scholarship.
>
>         As an educational institution, and one
> with a rich and proud
> history, you have an obligation to your
> students--past, present and
> future--to support scholarship and intellectual
> inquiry.  Should you
> disagree with Dr. Hamilton's interpretations or
> conclusions, you have the
> right to refute them or to invite other historians
> to examine your
> archives.  As historians of, and readers of the
> histories of, the
> country's leading educational institutions, we
> know that all have
> complicated histories, which are open to a
> multiplicity of
> interpretations.  This is not to be feared or
> avoided.  By leaving the
> matter as it now stands, you risk making this
> unfortunate
> episode the legacy of Bryn Mawr School: a footnote
> in the history of
> the suppression of academic freedom and historical
> debate.
>
>         We earnestly hope that you will reconsider
> your earlier decision
> and allow The Bryn Mawr School to be remembered
> for its tradition of free
> and open inquiry in the pursuit of knowledge.  In
> the interest of
> scholarship and fairness, we urge you to authorize
> publication of Dr.
> Hamilton's work without further delay.
>
> Sincerely,
>
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> Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>
>

A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!

To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to listserv@listserv.muohio.edu
      In body of message:  SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname
                    *or*:  UNSUB ARCHIVES
To post a message, send e-mail to archives@listserv.muohio.edu

Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at
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Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>