JUNE 6–8, 2003

Hosted by the Center for the Deep South Regional Humanities Center at Tulane University, The Historic New Orleans Collection, and the Louisiana State Museum.

INTRODUCTION

The Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture was founded as the Institute of Early American History and Culture in 1943 by the College of William and Mary and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation to foster “study, research, and publications bearing on American history approximately to the year 1815.” Still jointly sponsored by the College and Colonial Williamsburg, the Institute was renamed in 1996 in recognition of a generous endowment pledged by Mr. and Mrs. Malvern H. Omohundro, Jr. The Institute publishes the William and Mary Quarterly, books in its field of interest, and a e-newsletter, organizes and supports a variety of conferences, seminars, and colloquia, and annually awards a two-year NEH postdoctoral fellowship, a one-year Andrew W Mellon Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, and, in cooperation with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, short-term fellowships for research in the Foundation’s collections by predoctoral, postdoctoral, and independent scholars.

In June 1995 the Institute inaugurated a series of annual conferences specifically designed to serve as a forum for the rich variety of work underway in the early American field. Organized exclusively by calls for papers and panels and held in a different geographic region each year, these meetings are intended to bring together and facilitate exchanges among junior and senior scholars from several disciplines who share a common interest in the history and culture of early America.

The program committee for the 2003 conference is chaired by Sylvia Frey (Tulane University) and Emily Clark (Lewis and Clark College) and includes Warren Billings (University of New Orleans), Christopher Brown (Johns Hopkins University), Bernard Herman (University of Delaware), Margaret Newell (Ohio State University), Jon Sensbach (University of Florida), David Shields (The Citadel), James Sidbury (University of Texas, Austin), and Daniel H. Usner, Jr. (Vanderbilt University).

The meeting will take place on the Tulane University campus and at historic sites associated with the Louisiana Purchase in the French Quarter. The Institute and the conference organizers are grateful to the Deep South Regional Humanities Center at Tulane University, The Historic New Orleans Collection, and the Louisiana State Museum for their sponsorship and to the Consulat General de France and the history departments of Loyola University, Tulane University, and the University of New Orleans for their support. We also wish to thank Virginia Gould and Randy Sparks of Tulane University for their superb handling of local arrangements.