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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. |
