The Pennsylvania Historical Association (PHA), founded in 1932, is a non-profit volunteer organization committed to promoting interest in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

and Mid-Atlantic history. It publishes a journal, ''Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies'', as well as the Pennsylvania History Studies Series, which provides succinct overviews of themes and issues in Pennsylvania history. With support from the

Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) is the governmental agency of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania responsible for the collection, conservation and interpretation of Pennsylvania's historic heritage. The commission cares for ...

, the PHA holds an annual meeting in a different Pennsylvania location each fall and joins other organizations in sponsoring history programming such as Pennsylvania History Day and ExplorePAHistory.com.

History

The PHA was born of a conversation between historians Roy F. Nichols and

Lawrence Henry Gipson Lawrence Henry Gipson (December 7, 1880 – September 26, 1971) was an American historian, who won the 1950 Bancroft Prize and the 1962 Pulitzer Prize for History for volumes of his magnum opus, the fifteen-volume history of "The British Empire Be ...

at the 1928 annual meeting of the

American Historical Association The American Historical Association (AHA) is the oldest professional association of historians in the United States and the largest such organization in the world. Founded in 1884, the AHA works to protect academic freedom, develop professional s ...

(AHA). Nichols had developed an interest in doing local history, which he offered as a solution to concerns within the AHA that historians outside of large cities lacked the resources to undertake serious research. Nichols joined with Gipson and others to imagine an organization that, unlike its peers—which included the

Historical Society of Pennsylvania The Historical Society of Pennsylvania is a long-established research facility, based in Philadelphia. It is a repository for millions of historic items ranging across rare books, scholarly monographs, family chronicles, maps, press reports and v ...

(1824), the

Pennsylvania Federation of Historical Societies Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

(1905), and the

Pennsylvania Historical Commission The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) is the governmental agency of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania responsible for the collection, conservation and interpretation of Pennsylvania's historic heritage. The commission cares for ...

(1913)--would serve all commonwealth historians while remaining independent of institutional and geographic affiliations. In following years, an emergent nationwide interest in regionalism spawned by the New Deal's various cultural programs encouraged a receptive audience in Pennsylvania for Nichols' idea. Several meetings in and around State College, PA during 1932 laid the groundwork for an organizational constitution and planning for the PHA's first annual meeting, which convened in Bethlehem, PA at

Lehigh University Lehigh University (LU) is a private research university in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. The university was established in 1865 by businessman Asa Packer and was originally affiliated with the Epis ...

in 1933. Since its beginnings, the PHA has played a formative role in generating scholarship on Pennsylvania history and shaping archival collections throughout the commonwealth. At the time of its 75th-anniversary commemorations, PHA membership counted 800, including historians, teachers, and others with an interest in Pennsylvania history, and a wide variety of organizations including college and university libraries; secondary schools; public libraries (both state and local); research libraries, historic sites, and museums. Annual 3-day PHA conferences continue to be held at different locations throughout the state, featuring new research on topics in Pennsylvania history, and visits to historic sites of interest.

Mission

"The purpose of the Pennsylvania Historical Association shall be to promote interest in, reading of, or study of Pennsylvania history, especially as it relates to the larger context of American and world history. To achieve this purpose, the association shall engage in a variety of pertinent activities, including publishing materials and holding meetings of a scholarly nature."

''Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies''

'' Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies'' is a quarterly journal that publishes the best of current scholarship on the history of the commonwealth and the region. In addition to regular articles, the journal features annotated documents, book reviews, and reviews of museum exhibits, films, and historical collections. Published since 1934, ''Pennsylvania History'' is the official journal of the PHA. All back issues of the journal—beginning with Vol. 1 (1934) and continuing up through Vol. 72 (2005)--ar
freely available

References

External links

* Th
PHA official website
* For more concerning the PHA's history, see th
75th anniversary special issue
of ''Pennsylvania History'' 75:3 (Summer 2008). {{Authority control Organizations based in Philadelphia History of Pennsylvania Historical societies in Pennsylvania