Historical News
THE LOYOLA UNIVERSITY HISTORY DEPARTMENT
has established an
annual national master's essay
competition open in the academic year
1959-60. The first William P. Lyons
Master's Essay Award will be
made for the best essay submitted by
July 15, 1960, in manuscript form,
from those which have merited M.A.
degrees from American univer-
sities during 1959-60. The award will
recognize work that is exemplary
in style and method, based solidly on
original sources, and interpreta-
tively significant in current
scholarship. The winning essay will be
published with the cooperation of the
Loyola University Press.
Requests for further details should be
submitted to Professor Edward
T. Gargan, Department of History, Loyola
University, 6525 Sheridan
Road, Chicago 26, Illinois.
The Historical and Philosophical Society
of Ohio announces the
appointment of Herbert F. Koch as its
director, effective December 1,
1959. Mr. Koch, a member of the board of
trustees of the society, is
well known for his radio and television
broadcasts on historical sub-
jects, as well as for talks and
lectures. He has recently retired as pro-
fessor at the University of Cincinnati
in the college of business admin-
istration. Mr. Koch succeeds Richard G.
Arms, who served as director
from November 1957 to July 1959.
The annual meeting of the society will
be held on December 7, 1959.
The featured speaker will be Dwight P.
Green of Winnetka, Illinois.
Meredith B. Colket, Jr., director of the
Western Reserve Historical
Society, served as director of the ninth
annual American Institute of
Genealogical Research, which was held
from July 13 through July 31 at
the National Archives Building,
Washington, D. C. The institute was
sponsored by the department of history
of the American University with
the cooperation of the American Society
of Genealogists, the Maryland
Hall of Records, and the National
Archives and Records Service.
George W. Knepper, acting head of the
history department at the
University of Akron, has been promoted
to associate professor. Dr.
Knepper served as chairman of the
university's Lincoln sesquicentennial
420 THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
committee and was responsible for
various university programs recog-
nizing the event.
At Denison University, Francis Held has
left the history staff. David
Crook and Edward Todd have been added
as instructors.
Robert Seager, who is currently on
leave of absence, is working on
the Gardiner manuscripts at Yale
University in preparation for a book
on Julia Gardiner Tyler, second wife of
the tenth president.
New members of the history and
political science staff at John Carroll
University are William Ulrich, an
instructor in history, and Father
Paul Woelfl, S.J., former director of
the department of political science
at Loyola University (Chicago), who
becomes professor of political
science.
A conference on "Major Problems in
the Soviet Union" was held at
the university on July 9-11. Some ten
sessions were devoted to exploring
Soviet problems by a panel composed of
Robert Byrnes, chairman of the
department of history and director of
Russian studies at Indiana Uni-
versity; Tibor Kerekes, professor of
history and director of the Institute
of Ethnic Studies at Georgetown
University; John Fizer, assistant pro-
fessor of Russian language and
literature, Notre Dame University; Rev.
Francis Dvornik, professor of history at
Harvard University and re-
search director at Dumbarton Oaks;
Roman Smal-Stocki, professor of
history and director of the Slavic
Institute, Marquette University;
Beltie Shah Gilani, visiting lecturer
from India, John Carroll Univer-
sity; and Michael Pap, assistant
professor of history at John Carroll.
Assistant Professor William Kerr of the
department of history at
Kenyon College has accepted a position
at Wesleyan University, Middle-
town, Connecticut. He will be replaced
by Robert L. Baker, who
received his Ph.D. from Princeton in
1955 and has been teaching for
the past four years at Brown
University. A specialist in the Middle
Ages, Dr. Baker will hold the rank of
associate professor.
The Dutton Everyman paperback edition
of The Story of Our Civili-
zation by Philip Lee Ralph was published last April. Dr.
Ralph is
chairman of social studies at Lake Erie
College.
Robert Hilliard will assume the
chairmanship of the department of
history and political science at Ohio
Northern University at the begin-
ning of the academic year 1959-60.
HISTORICAL NEWS 421
Wilfred E. Binkley's Man in the
White House was listed by the New
York Times Book Review (June 14, 1959) as one of the one hundred
"best books of the year."
Sydney N. Fisher's The Middle East:
A History was published re-
cently by Alfred A. Knopf. Dr. Fisher
is professor of history at Ohio
State University.
John F. Cady, chairman of the history
department at Ohio Univer-
sity, was named one of three on the
university faculty for the newly
created "Distinguished Professorship"
at the commencement on June 7,
1959. The honor carries with it a
semester off duty with full pay plus
a substantial monetary grant for
research. Dr. Cady also received a
Social Science Research Council award
for work at the Library of Con-
gress during the summer on a history of
Southeast Asia.
Carl Wittke has been appointed to the
newly created Elbert J. Benton
Distinguished Professorship in History
at Western Reserve University.
Miss Patricia Drury of the College of
Wooster has accepted a position
in the history department of Tri-County
Junior College at Bay City,
Michigan.
Robert W. Schneider (A.B., College of
Wooster; M.A., Western
Reserve University; Ph.D., University
of Minnesota) has accepted a
position as instructor at Wooster.
Clayton S. Ellsworth read a paper on
Theodore Roosevelt's Country
Life Commission at a joint meeting of
the Mississippi Valley Historical
Association and the Agricultural
History Society held at Denver in
April.
Miss Aileen Dunham, head of the history
department, will return
to her teaching duties this fall after
spending a sabbatical leave in a trip
around the world.
Robert Walcott, Jr., while in England
on leave this year, will continue
his study of the economic activities of
the members of parliament in the
eighteenth century.
At Youngstown University, James Johnson
(Ph.D., Syracuse Uni-
versity) and Guido A. Dobbert (M.A.,
University of Chicago) have
been appointed assistant professors of
history. Associate Professor Vern
L. Bullough has joined the faculty of
San Fernando Valley State
College.