Southeastern Louisiana University

SOUTHEAST LOUISIANA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION SPRING MEETING APRIL 8, 2009

Please mark the night of Wednesday, 8 April 2009 on your calendar for the spring meeting of the Southeast Louisiana Historical Association.

Our evening will begin in the Columbia Theater Banquet Room (220 East Thomas Street) with spirits and conversation at 6:00 PM. Dinner will be served immediately prior to our 6:30 PM lecture featuring one of southeast Louisiana’s preeminent local scholars, Donald Sharp (left), who will discuss a list of the most significant events and individuals in the early development of our region based on his more than forty years of research.

At this time, we are encouraging everyone to renew their membership to the Association. Dues for 2009 are $20.00 per person, which entitles you to admission and dinner at the spring lecture as well as to receive the association’s scholarly journal, Southeast Louisiana Review. Tickets to the spring event for non-members is $10.00. All current and prospective members are encouraged to attend and to bring a guest.

Please access the link below for a flyer and use the attached form to reserve your place at the spring meeting and to ensure your receipt of the SELHA’s new journal when published. Please make checks payable to "Southeast Louisiana Historical Association." Join us as we revitalize this important regional historical association.

CLICK HERE FOR FLYER AND FORM FOR APRIL 2009 MEETING

ABOUT THE SLHA 

The Center for Southeast Louisiana Studies remains proud of its affiliation with the Southeast Louisiana Historical Association. The Southeast Louisiana Historical Association sponsors two annual meetings that feature prominent local historians. Each meeting includes a dinner/social and a lecture/presentation of historical or cultural significance. The Center for Southeast Louisiana Studies helps to organize and underwrite this important local historical association. New and renewed membership in the Southeast Louisiana Historical Association remains $10 for individual members and $20 for family membership. To join the SLHA contact the Center for Southeast Louisiana Studiest at (985) 549-2151 or selahistory@selu.edu

Southeast Louisiana Historical Association Thrives

The SELHA experienced an exciting 2008 with the initiation of new programs, along with the continuation of old ones.  The year started with our annual membership drive.  During that period we urged members to sign up for another stint with the organization and hinted at the revival of a regional scholarly journal. (See article elsewhere in this newsletter for details)  Membership in the organization soon reached an all time high with many old friends returning and many new ones joining for the first time.  Next came the announcement that our spring 2008 dinner/lecture event would feature nationally known scholar Dr. Jon Kukla author of the critically acclaimed book  A Wilderness So Immense: The Louisiana Purchase and the Destiny of America.  To house its growing membership, the organization’s executive committee scheduled its meeting at the historic Columbia Theater.

At the April 17 event, the department of history also recognized two of Southeastern Louisiana University’s most beloved historians, Dr. Michael Kurtz for his service as a faculty member and as Dean of the Graduate School and Dr. Roman Heleniak for his service as a faculty member, Department Head,  and as a Scholar in Residence in the Center for Southeast Louisiana Studies. The moving ceremony culminated with the awarding of certificates to the honored guests.  Kukla’s engaging presentation followed by the usual food and libations, served as the perfect ending for a perfect evening.

Dr. Michael Kurtz and Dr. Roman Heleniak

Southeast Louisiana Historical Association Returns--2008

The pending retirement of Southeast Louisiana Historical Association President Dr. Roman Heleniak placed the organization’s annual events on hold.  During this brief hiatus, the group  reorganized and reinvented itself to even better serve the needs of the region. Launching the new “SELHA” took place at the unveiling of the Center’s latest exhibit consisting in part of a photographic display titled “100 years 100 photographs,” on loan from the Varnado Store Museum in Franklinton.  The pictorial exhibit underwritten by a grant from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities revealed the centrality of the railroad in the development of Washington Parish.  In conjunction with the photographic display, the Center staff organized a corollary exhibit that highlighted the growth and influence of the railroad in Tangipahoa Parish.  The Center showcased a wide array of railroad related artifacts and paraphernalia many of which are from the Judge Leon Ford, III Collection.  Whether rail-fan, local historian, or just curious, the Center’s new exhibit offered something for everyone.                                   

A meeting of the Southeast Louisiana Historical Association coincided with the exhibit’s opening.  Dr. Keith Finley, Interregnum Head of the Organization, opened the meeting by introducing the group’s new President Dr. Clark Forrest, a long time member and former director of the SELHA.  Dr. Forrest informed the crowd of many new plans for the organization.  It was released that the historical association would once again publish a refereed scholarly journal accessible to both scholars and amateur historians that will offer a multi-disciplinary examination of the Florida Parishes.  Additional information regarding the forthcoming journal should arrive in your mail box soon.  We hope that the journal will spur additional exploration into our region’s rich and exciting history.  We encourage recipients of this Newsletter to consider submitting articles on any aspect of history or culture in the Florida Parishes for potential publication. 

Some Previous Meetings of the SLHA: 

SELHA Hosts Manchac Film Premier

Southeast Louisiana Historical Association functions always promise good food, good times, and more often than not, good scholarship.  As the Spring 2006 meeting approached, the organization’s leadership debated potential speakers.  Graduate students and faculty members conducting research in regional history were all considered.  A short list of names slowly took shape and a date—27 April--was selected.  At the same time preparations were being made, the Center’s EPA funded film neared completion.  It would be ready in time for a showing at the SELHA gathering.  Organization President, Roman Heleniak promptly shifted the evening’s focus and embraced the notion of premiering the film titled, “The Manchac Swamp: Man-made Disaster in Search of Resolution” at the spring meeting.  As a new plan emerged, it became necessary to make the event’s festivities less formal to ensure that adequate chairs were available for the larger than normal crowd expected.  Organization members were honored that the important film would have its first public showing at their event. The crowd, which was the largest gathering of the Association in a decade, was treated to the premier of the Mancha Swamp video. Two years previous the Center for Southeast Louisiana Studies had received a $63,000 grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to write a narrative and to produce a documentary film highlighting the long-term consequences of human habitation in the northern and western Pontchartrain basin. This film was the culmination of this major project. And the crowd was not disappointed – the production highlighted the causal chain that precipitated the ravaging of the Manchac Swamp, an area that many of our members have cherished since childhood. Guests at this meeting dined on a variety of delicious foods that included po-boy sandwiches from the "Crazy Pig," jambalaya from the "Jambalaya Company" and Hungarian pastries from the "Old World Bakery." The History Honor Society, Phi Alpha Theta, also inducted its new members at the event.  It proved a fitting venue for welcoming new scholars into the fold.  Plans for a summer 2007 meeting in which a new direction for the organization  will be announced are underway.

"The Manchac Swamp: Manmade Disaster in Search of a Resolution" has since been selected to appear in the New York International Film Festival on 17 September 2006 and aired statewide on Louisiana Public Broadcasting 3 September, 2006.