Contact: Ben Nagel
An editor with the U. S. Grant Presidential Library at Mississippi State is among the first group to be named a Visiting Fellow of the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University.
Aaron S. Crawford is associate editor of The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant. Since 2010, he has been a member of the university's professional staff at Mitchell Memorial Library, where the Grant Library is housed.
He and longtime MSU historian John F. Marszalek have completed the final two volumes of the 32-volume Grant papers and currently are editing the first scholarly edition of "The Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant." A retired Giles Distinguished Professor of History, Marszalek continues to serve as executive director and managing editor of the U.S. Grant Association, owner of the MSU-based Grant Presidential Collection.
While in Texas during the 2013-14 academic year, Crawford, a University of Tennessee doctoral graduate, will continue editing the Grant memoirs, as well as researching the history of U.S. presidential memoirs and autobiographies. In addition, he will be working on SMU's Center for Presidential History's Collective Memory Project.
Southern Methodist University is home to the George W. Bush Presidential Center that includes the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, George W. Bush Policy Institute and George W. Bush Foundation.
The Houston institution established the presidential history center to help advance the understanding of and appreciation for American presidential history. The center's Collective Memory project is dedicated to enhancing the historical and archival record of various administrations. The oral history of the George W. Bush presidency is the first collective memory project.
Replacing Crawford during his fellowship is Robert Karachuk, longtime editor with the Adams Papers project at the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston and the Documentary History of the Supreme Court at the Supreme Court Historical Society in Washington, D.C.
Karachuk also will be organizing the 2014 Institute for the Editing of Historical Documents, the annual weeklong training program for scholars new to historical editing sponsored by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission of the National Archives and the Association for Documentary Editing.
"We are proud that Dr. Crawford has gained this prestigious fellowship," said Frances Coleman, dean of MSU Libraries. "We will miss his leadership but we know that he will do Mississippi State University proud in Texas."
Coleman said MSU and MSU Libraries are "fortunate that an editor of Robert Karachuk's talent and reputation will be joining us during Dr. Crawford's absence."