American Association for State and Local History
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| Established | 1940 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Christopher C. Crittenden |
| Type | Non-profit association |
| Headquarters | Nashville, TN |
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Region served
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United States |
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Membership
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6,300+ |
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Key people
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John Dichtl, Bob Beatty |
| Website | www |
The American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) is a non-profit association for state and local history, with a primary focus on history professionals, history volunteers, museums, historical societies, and other history-related organizations and public history professionals. Since 1964, it is headquartered in Nashville, TN, and currently has about 5,500 members. The organization has eight full-time staff members. AASLH is the only comprehensive national organization dedicated to state and local history.
AASLH publishes a quarterly magazine called History News. A series of instructional articles call Technical Leaflets are published quarterly and distributed with History News. History News is also available as a PDF download for members. AASLH also publishes books through Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group including Nomenclature 4.0,Small Museum Toolkit, and the Interpreting History series.
In 2009 AASLH launched the "Standards and Excellence Program for History Organizations," or StEPS. This program helps small- and mid-sized history museums, historic sites and houses, including all-volunteer ones, assess policies and practices, manage daily operations and plan for the future. As opposed to a certification program, StEPS is a self-study program without a set timeline. Participating organizations use a workbook to assess and improve operations. They achieve certificates from AASLH after completing sections. As of 2015, over 650 organizations have participated in StEPs.
AASLH sponsors, advocates, and lobbies on behalf of state and local history at the national level through strategic partnerships with several organizations. In 1998 AASLH began its American Indian Museums Program (AIMP) to advocate for and provide professional development to America’s tribal museums. In 2004 AASLH spearheaded a movement advocating for a new federal program within the Institute of Museum and Library Services’ Office of Museum Studies to provide grants to states to facilitate statewide support for museums, with funds granted to states, where states would then re-grant funds to museums depending upon each state’s needs.
Since 1941, AASLH has held an Annual Meeting where members gather to discuss the big issues of the field. In 2014, AASLH's Annual Meeting in St. Paul, MI had over 1000 attendees. In 2008, AASLH launched their Online Conference, which features hybrid sessions at the Annual Meeting designed to incorporate virtual attendees through an online classroom platform. AASLH records up to twenty sessions each meeting and place them online for free.
In 1904, the American Historical Association, itself a fledgling professional body, established the semi-autonomous Conference of State and Local Historical Societies to serve the leaders of those agencies. In 1939, a group of Conference members, chaired by Christopher C. Crittenden, director of the North Carolina Department of Archives and History, discussed and then proposed the creation of an independent entity. Its job would be to better coordinate the activities of historical societies and stimulate the writing and teaching of state and local history in North America. On December 27, 1940, the Conference of State and Local History met and disbanded itself. Then the American Association for State and Local History was born. Its first charter stated that AASLH’s purpose was, simply, “the promotion of effort and activity in the fields of state, provincial, and local history in the United States and Canada.”
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