ABSTRACT
A comparison with the present situation gives a measure of the al tered scale of professional activity. Between 1907 and 1962 mem bership in the American Historical Association increased fivefold; and since distances have shrunk, the annual meeting attracted ten times as many registrants in 1962 as it had in 1907. Some fourteen additional sessions were given to ancient, Russian, Latin American, African, and Asian history. The growth of historical activity, except for interludes during the two world wars, had been steady. The major shifts in the growth rate its decline in the early twentieth century and its spectacular upswing in recent years correlate with important changes in the historians' milieu. The sprawling, multitudinous nature of the whole institutional complex is evident in both of its major components. The pacemaker was the library of Congress under the leadership of Herbert Putnam.
