Origins
of the Conference
From Meeting
Minutes of 1971.
Know that that the conference
had its origin in a questionnaire circulated in 1962 by James Powell,
then at the University of Illinois. This encyclical was addressed
to medieval historians in Illinois and surrounding states, and such
of the respondents as appeared in December of that year at the American
Historical Association's convention--they were perhaps twelve in number--held
a stand-up consultation or caucus in a convenient corridor after the
Mediaeval Academy banquet, and agreed that a sit-down conference in
the Spring would be more congenial. Accordingly, the first session
took place at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale on Saturday,
May 4, 1963, and was adorned with a constellation of papers by Richard
Sullivan, Karl Morrison, James Brundage, Lowrie Daly, Arthur Hogue,
and Paul Alexander. The hospitality provided by Lon Shelby included
a complaisant motel sign that proclaimed, in letters two feet high,
the greeting "Welcome Medieval History." So great
was the success of this meeting that it was determined to hold another
session in the fall of the same year, to make up for lost time, as
it might be. And accordingly a second conference was held at
Saint Louis in October of the same year, 1963.
From a letter
by James M. Powell, Professor Emeritus, Syracuse University, to David
Wagner, Professor Emeritus, Northern Illinois University, November 13,
2008.
Dear David:
Please excuse the delay. My
memories of the early days of the Midwest Medieval History Conference
are not that sharp but I will do what I can.
I got the idea for a meeting
that would be chiefly for medieval historians shortly after I arrived
in Champaign-Urbana in 1961. I had been attending the Midwest meeting
of British historians for a couple of years and found it quite congenial.
I was teaching at Kent State and Martin Havran introduced me to that
meeting. The first year I was at Illinois, it met there at Allerton
House. I decided to see what could be done for medievalists in the
Midwest, since the Medieval Academy was very much an Eastern establishment
at that time. Of course, I was not yet aware of the soon to be held
conference at Western Michigan being organized by John Sommerfeldt.
We came to be on very good terms. I wrote to various people, including
Gray Boyce and the secretary of the Medieval Academy. Gray was helpful,
Dr. Miller was cautious but encouraging. I spoke to Deno Geanakopolos,
but my plan did not jell, however, until Lon Shelby stopped by on
a visit from Southern Illinois. I put my plan to Lon and with his
help, we held the first meeting at Southern Illinois. I put together
the program. Among the first participants were Paul Alexander (Michigan),
Dick Sullivan (Michigan State), Jim Brundage (Wisconsin, Milwaukee),
Karl Morrison (Minnesota). There was a good attendance. We called
the group the Midwest Medieval Conference, but the name very quickly
became the Midwest Medieval History Conference. Father Lowrie Daly
and several others suggested that we should meet in the fall of the
same year and he offered to host the meeting at Saint Louis University.
That proved to be a very good suggestion. Unfortunately, I did not
preserve that program and cannot remember all the participants, but
I think one was Stuart Hoyt (Minnesota), who quickly became a major
promoter of the group. I believe our third meeting was held at Michigan
State and it was there that we were joined by the Toronto participants,
Leonard Boyle, Ambrose Raftis, and Michael Sheehan. We met in 1966
at Indiana, with Arthur Hogue as our host. We were joined at one of
these early meetings by Peter Sawyer (Leeds) who was visiting at Minnesota.
He and Stuart pitched the idea for the International Medieval Bibliography
and Stuart was its chief promoter. It was a great idea. You might
also say that Leeds was born out of the activities of the Midwest
groups, ours and Kalamazoo.
You were interested in the
way in which our group was received. On the whole, it was embraced
by those then at the various Midwestern schools, Frank Pegues of Ohio
State was quite active. Sylvia Thrupp participated in a couple of
meetings. Donald Sutherland was also quite active. Unfortunately,
both the Midwest Medieval History Conference and Kalamazoo were not
embraced by some who felt (wrongly, I think) that they were in competition
with the Medieval Academy. Some apparently felt that they should not
take part lest their association would be disapproved of. Some undoubtedly
felt that the open door policy pursued by John Sommerfeldt watered
down the quality of Kalamazoo. I know that John was not appreciated.
As for myself, I worked with Stuart Hoyt and a few others, including
Giles Constable, to bring the Medieval Academy around so that it would
reach out to a broader body of participants. Joe Strayer played a
major role in moving it in this direction. I am sure that I have paid
a price for my noise-making, but I am happy that the Midwest Medieval
History Conference has remained a very positive contributor to medieval
studies.
Best regards,
Jim Powell
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