Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture

Uncommon Sense—the blog

Down the Rabbit Hole with Sigenauk

· December 13th, 2021 · No Comments

By John William Nelson John William Nelson (Texas Tech University) is the author of “Sigenauk’s War of Independence: Anishinaabe Resurgence and the Making of Indigenous Authority in the Borderlands of Revolution” in the October 2021 issue of the William and Mary Quarterly. I did not set out to write a history of an obscure Anishinaabe… Read More »

Colleagues, a word! (or two…)

· December 1st, 2021 · 1 Comment

by Kathryn M. de Luna Kathryn M. de Luna is the author of “Sounding the African Atlantic” in the October 2021 issue of the William and Mary Quarterly. I had wanted to write an article like this one, applying early (pre-Atlantic-era) Africanists’ methods to Atlantic contexts since grad school. But, if I’m honest, I was… Read More »

Our History’s Next Generation

· October 14th, 2021 · No Comments

A blog post by Karin Wulf Note: This is the last blog post by Karin Wulf in her role as executive director of the Omohundro Institute. Her final day at the head of the team is today. We congratulate her and wish her the best of luck in her new role as the Director and… Read More »

Ongoing Native Power and Precarious Anglo-American Empires

· August 19th, 2021 · No Comments

By Elspeth Martini Elspeth Martini is the author of “VISITING INDIANS,” NURSING FATHERS, AND ANGLO-AMERICAN EMPIRES IN THE POST–WAR OF 1812 WESTERN GREAT LAKES” in the July 2021 issue of the William and Mary Quarterly. If Native nations controlled the vast majority of North America above the Rio Grande at the end of the eighteenth… Read More »

Seeing with Others

· August 11th, 2021 · No Comments

How an intellectual collaboration brought four lives into focus By Karen B. Graubart This article began with a generous hand-off from a friend and colleague. Luis Miguel Glave, an eminent Peruvian scholar and regular denizen of the reading room of the Archivo General de Indias in Seville, enjoys taking a morning break from research with… Read More »

Blue Sky for the Fourth of July

· July 1st, 2021 · No Comments

By Karin Wulf, Executive Director of the Omohundro Institute If there is a year for blue sky thinking—aspirational, bold, and collaborative—this is it. In five years the United States will mark the semi-quincentennial—the 250th anniversary—of its Declaration of Independence.  There will be fireworks, there will be speeches, and surely there will be hotdogs.  There will… Read More »

Time to reset your syllabi, Vast Early America

· June 30th, 2021 · No Comments

By Catherine E. Kelly, OI Editor of Books I came to the project that would become Thirteen Clocks: How Race United the Colonies and Made the Declaration of Independence the hard way – through the college classroom. Before joining the Omohundro Institute, I taught American history first at Case Western Reserve University and then at… Read More »