If your interest in early American history has led you to this Web site, I hope that you will accept our invitation to deepen your commitment to the field by becoming an Associate of the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture for 2008.

Associates comprise more than 1,000 individuals whose shared commitment to advancing the study of the early American past inspires them to make an annual investment in the Institute’s work and in the standard of scholarly excellence that has been its hallmark since the organization’s founding in 1943.

As the Institute’s two permanent sponsors, the College of William and Mary and Colonial Williamsburg provide the primary financial base for our programs.  (Supporters should understand that no funds from the bequest pledged in 1996 by Mr. and Mrs. Malvern H. Omohundro, Jr., will be available to the Institute during Mrs. Omohundro’s lifetime.)  Associates’ gifts extend and enhance the sponsors’ support so that we can maintain the range and the quality of our traditional agenda—publishing the William and Mary Quarterly and books, awarding postdoctoral fellowships, organizing a variety of conferences, workshops, and seminars, and developing electronic initiatives—and, at the same time, respond creatively to the new challenges and opportunities that characterize this vibrant field of early American scholarship.

To a significant degree, Omohundro Institute conferences, especially the yearly meeting in June, rely upon the resources that Associates provide.  Associates’ giving also contributes significantly to our ability to maintain H-OIEAHC and a state-of-the-art Web site and to participate in JSTOR and the History Cooperative.  In an increasingly sophisticated electronic age, these initiatives have become key dimensions of the Institute’s work and require considerable investments of staff expertise and budgetary support.

Clicking on the icon below will show you the tangible benefits of becoming an Associate, among them a subscription to the William and Mary Quarterly, invitations to Institute receptions, and, depending on your level of membership, a selection of books from the Institute’s list and individual access to JSTOR. 

This past year, 1,113 Associates contributed $123,871, or nearly 10 percent of the Institute’s budget.  This substantial and deeply appreciated response generously affirms the importance of the work we do together, as scholars, editors, teachers, students, and readers, in behalf of the study of early America.   I hope that you will enlist in this effort by joining the Associates for 2008.