WORCESTER—Twenty-nine people from 13 states and the United Kingdom have been elected to membership in the American Antiquarian Society (AAS), with four members living in central Massachusetts.
The AAS is a 212-year-old national research library and community of learners “dedicated to discovering and sharing a deeper understanding of the American past.”
Elected this month, the new members join a distinguished roster of more than 1,100 AAS members from 48 states, the District of Columbia, and seven other countries.
According to an announcement from the AAS, members are “elected for their achievement in academic or public life, members range from scholars, collectors, and librarians to artists, writers, and history enthusiasts.”
Since the Society’s founding in 1812, 14 United States presidents, more than 75 Pulitzer Prize winners, scores of Bancroft Prize winners, many Guggenheim fellows, and several MacArthur Award winners have been elected to membership.
The new American Antiquarian Society members are:
- Elizabeth Bacon (Sutton, MA), coordinator of the Clemente Course in the Humanities in Worcester
- Lorne Bair (Winchester, VA), antiquarian bookseller
- Melissa Barton (New Haven, CT) curator of prose and drama at Yale University’s Yale collection of American literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library and curator of the James Weldon Johnson Collection of African American Arts and Letters
- Ben Bascom (Muncie, IN) assistant professor of English at Ball State University; Jay Cantor (Woodstock, CT), independent historian and curator and president of Jay E. Cantor, Fine Art Consulting, Inc.
- William R. Cross (Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA), independent scholar and consultant to art and history museums
- Christian Ayne Crouch (Rhinebeck, NY), dean of graduate studies and associate professor of history and American and Indigenous students at Bard College
- James Cummins III (New York, NY), proprietor of James Cummins Bookseller
- Cate Denial (Galesburg, IL), Bright Distinguished Professor of American History and director of the Bright Institute at Knox College
- Marisa J. Fuentes (New Brunswick, NJ), associate professor of history and women’s gender studies at Rutgers University
- Michael S. Green (Las Vegas, NV), professor of history at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas
- Barbara Elizabeth Heritage (Charlottesville, VA), director of collections, exhibitions and scholarly initiatives for Rare Book School
- Rana Asali Hogarth (Champaign, IL) associate professor of history at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
- Sherita L. Johnson (Hattiesburg, MS), associate professor of English at the University of Southern Mississippi
- Jacob Loewentheil (New York, NY), rare book seller, photography dealer, and curator of the Marcel Sternberger Collection
- Brian P. Luskey (Gettysburg, PA), associate professor of history at West Virginia University
- Koritha Mitchell (Northborough, MA), professor of English at Ohio State University and visiting professor of English at Boston University
- Alyssa Mt. Pleasant (Buffalo, NY), principal of ATW Research & Consulting, focusing on projects at the intersection of history and Native American and Indigenous Studies
- Megan Kate Nelson (Boston, MA), writer and independent historian
- Deirdre Cooper Owens (Hartford, CT), associate professor of history at the University of Connecticut
- Alvin Patrick (Easton, CT) executive producer of CBS News Streaming Originals and the CBS News Race and Culture Unit
- K.J. Rawson (Grafton, MA), associate professor of English and women’s, gender and sexuality studies at Northeastern University
- Jessica Rosenberg (Ithaca, NY), associate professor of English at Cornell University
- Sarah Sanders (Worcester, MA), Worcester Public Schools teacher and freelance writer
- Terri L. Snyder (Pasadena, CA) professor and chair of American Studies at California State University, Fullerton
- John Stauffer (Cambridge, MA), Sumner R. and Marshall S. Kates Professor of English and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University
- Ben Vinson III (Washington, DC), president of Howard University
- Xine Yao (London, England) lecturer in American literature to 1900 at University College, London
- Kurt Zimmerman (Conroe, TX), private book collector
More about this local gem:
The American Antiquarian Society holds the world’s largest and most accessible collection of original printed, handwritten, and visual sources from before 1900 in what is now the United States. The library of more than four million items includes books, pamphlets, broadsides, newspapers, periodicals, children’s literature, music, and graphic arts material.
AAS connects people across the globe with these collections through its digital catalog and resources, online exhibitions, and virtual learning experiences. In addition, it supports dozens of researchers, artists, and writers each year with a variety of fellowship programs. In 2013, President Obama presented the Society with the National Humanities Medal in a White House ceremony.
The American Antiquarian Society is located at 185 Salisbury St. in Worcester. The library is open Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The library is free and open to anyone with projects or interests related to the collections. All are welcome to join its free public programs held throughout the year. To learn more, visit americanantiquarian.org.
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