Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/99748
THE SYMPOSIA SERIES 1 9 7 8– 1 99 3 T celebration of the Bicentennial of the American Revolution in 1976 provided the incentive for the Society to authorize a series of twelve annual historical conferences. President Schwengel had two main concerns that led to the genesis of the symposia series. He believed that not enough had been done to support scholarship during the Bicentennial, and he wanted to enhance the standing of the Society in the intellectual community. President Schwengel first consulted with Professor Walter Rundell of the University of Maryland. Rundell had been present at the organizational meeting of the Society on July 31, 1962, and he had continued to be an advisor to the Society's programs. He was largely responsible for recommending the creation of the Society's Capitol Studies journal as a member of the Executive Committee. In December 1976, Rundell prepared a tentative outline of thirteen topics for annual conferences that could be held between 1977 and 1989. HE NATIONAL The discussions with Rundell and Society Historian William Maury culminated in a proposal for a bicentennial symposia series to run through 1989. Rundell suggested Ronald Hoffman, an associate professor of history from the faculty of the History Department at the University of Maryland, as an appropriate candidate to administer the program. Hoffman had earned his doctorate in 1969 at the University of Wisconsin, where he had studied under Merrill Jensen. A specialist in the field of the history of the American Revolution, he had written an important monograph on the Revolution in Maryland. Rundell wrote Schwengel of Hoffman that "He is an expert in the field and can exert real leadership." Schwengel and Hoffman conferred on May 31, 1977, at which time it was agreed that he would plan twelve annual conferences from 1978 to 1989. The agreement also authorized Hoffman to conduct the first symposium sometime in January through March of 1978. The topic for the first conference was to Professor Ronald Hoffman of the University of Maryland directed the Society's first symposia series from 1978 to 1993. be the Franco-American Alliance of 1778. The first symposium was held on March 15 and 16, 1978 in the elegant Senate Caucus Room of the Russell Senate Office Building. Morning and afternoon sessions were conducted on each day, free of charge and open to all interested persons. Alexander DeConde, William Stinchcombe, Jonathan Dull, and Orville T. Murphy presented papers at the four sessions. Professor Lawrence Kaplan gave the concluding address at a dinner held in the Senate Reception Room in the Capitol. The conference provided the opportunity for commun i cation between professional historians and the public. One of the particiStudents and teachers from Maryland posed with Senator Paul Sarbanes at the student awards luncheon held during the 1982 symposium program.