Founded in 1903, the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association (PCB-AHA) held its first annual meeting in 1904.
2010s
111th Annual Meeting (2018)– The Historian’s Scholarly and Public Roles
Santa Clara, CA
110th Annual Meeting (2017)- Seeing History: Traces and Representations of the Past
Northridge, CA
- Presidential Address by Katherine G. Morrissey on “Traces and Representations of the U.S.-Mexico Frontera.”
Publication forthcoming in the February 2018 issue of the Pacific Historical Review.
109th Annual Meeting (2016)
Kona, HI
- Presidential Address by George J. Sánchez on “Why Are Multiracial Communities So Dangerous? A Comparative Look at Hawai’i; Cape Town, South Africa; and Boyle Heights, California.“
108th Annual Meeting (2015)
Sacramento, CA
- Presidential Address by Anne F. Hyde on “The Blue Flower and the Account Book: Writing a History of Mixed-Blood Americans.“
107th Annual Meeting (2014)
Portland, OR
- Presidential Address by David Igler on “Hardly Pacific: Violence and Death in the Great Ocean.“
106th Annual Meeting (2013)
Denver, CO
- Presidential Address by Carl Abbott on “Jim Rockford or Tony Soprano: Coastal Contrasts in American Suburbia.“
105th Annual Meeting (2012)
San Diego, CA
- Presidential Address by Kyle Longley on “Between Sorrow and Pride: The Morenci Nine, the Vietnam War, and Memory in Small-Town America.“
104th Annual Meeting (2011)
Seattle, WA
- Presidential Address by Janet Fireman on “Between Horizons: Traveling the Great Central Valley.”
103rd Annual Meeting (2010)
Santa Clara, CA
- Presidential Address by Barbara Molony on “From “Mothers of Humanity” to “Assisting the Emperor”: Gendered Belonging in the Wartime Rhetoric of Japanese Feminist Ichikawa Fusae.”
2000s
102nd Annual Meeting (2009)
Albuquerque, NM
- Presidential Address by Rachel G. Fuchs on “Crossing Borders in Love, War, and History: French Families during World War II.“
101st Annual Meeting (2008)
Pasadena, CA
- Presidential Address by David M. Wrobel on “Global West, American Frontier.“
100th Annual Meeting (2007)
Honolulu, HI
- Presidential Address by Linda B. Hall on “Images of Women and Power.“
99th Annual Meeting (2006)
Stanford, CA
- Presidential Address by Albert M. Camarillo on “Cities of Color: The New Racial Frontier in California’s Minority-Majority Cities.“
98th Annual Meeting (2005)
Corvallis, OR
- Presidential Address by Elizabeth Jameson on “Dancing on the Rim, Tiptoeing through Minefields.“
97th Annual Meeting (2004)
San Jose, CA
- Presidential Address by Roger L. Nichols on “Western Attractions.”
96th Annual Meeting (2003)
Honolulu, HI
- Presidential Address by Vicki L. Ruiz on “Una Mujer Sin Fronteras.“
95th Annual Meeting (2002)
Tucson, AZ
- Presidential Address by Thomas G. Alexander on “Red Rock and Gray Stone: Senator Reed Smoot, the Establishment of Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks, and the Rebuilding of Downtown Washington, D.C.“
94th Annual Meeting (2001)
Vancouver, BC
- Presidential Address by Sandra C. Taylor on “Salt Lake City and Stereotypes of the Russians.“
93rd Annual Meeting (2000)
Park City, UT
- Presidential Address by Carlos A. Schwantes on “The Case of the Missing Century, or Where Did the American West Go After 1900?“
1990s
92nd Annual Meeting (1999)
Maui, HI
- Presidential Address by Iris H. Wilson Engstrand on “Of Fish and Men: Spanish Marine Science during the Late Eighteenth Century.“
91st Annual Meeting (1998)
San Diego, CA
- Presidential Address by Albert L. Hurtado on “Sex, Gender, Culture, and a Great Event: The California Gold Rush.“
9oth Annual Meeting (1997)
Portland, OR
- Presidential Address by Joan M. Jensen on “Women on the Pacific Rim: Some Thoughts on Border Crossings.“
89th Annual Meeting (1996)
San Francisco, CA
- Presidential Address by Martin Ridge on “An Exile in Eden.“
88th Annual Meeting (1995)
Maui, HI
- Presidential Address by Norris Hundley, Jr. on “What Manner of Monument: The Pacific Historical Review and the Profession.“
“In 1995 the Pacific Historical Review celebrated its sixty-third anniversary, an occasion marking the publication of more than 32,000 pages and nearly eight thousand articles, notes, documents, and book reviews on a wide array of subjects written in a variety of styles and proffering a host of interpretations. To have reached three score and three without benefit of plot, outline, or even colored pictures was no mean achievement. The Review’s treasury of knowledge is eloquent testimony to the persistence of a cooperative venture among more than three generations of scholars bound by a commitment to writing, reading, and appraising one another’s work in fields of common interest—in this instance, primarily the history of western North America and American expansion into the Pacific area and beyond.”
87th Annual Meeting (1994)
Fullerton, CA
- Presidential Address by E. Bradford Burns on “Brazil: Frontier and Ideology.“
86th Annual Meeting (1993)
Los Angeles, CA
- Presidential Address by Lois W. Banner on “The Irony of Memory: Finding a Los(t) Angeles.“
85th Annual Meeting (1992)
Corvallis, OR
- Presidential Address by David Brody on “Reconciling the Old Labor History and the New.“
84th Annual Meeting (1991)
Kona, HI
- Presidential Address by C. Warren Hollister on “The Phases of European History and the Nonexistence of the Middle Ages.“
83rd Annual Meeting (1990)
Salt Lake City, UT
- Presidential Address by Robert Middlekauff on “Narrative History and Ordinary Life.“
1980s
82nd Annual Meeting (1989)
Portland, OR
- Presidential Address by Peter Stansky on “The Crumbling Frontiers of History or History and Biography: Some Personal Remarks.“
81st Annual Meeting (1988)
San Francisco, CA
- Presidential Address by Kathryn Kish Sklar on “‘Women Who Speak for an Entire Nation’: American and British Women Compared at the World Anti-Slavery Convention, London, 1840.“
80th Annual Meeting (1987)
Los Angeles, CA
- Presidential Address by Kwang-Ching Liu on “Chinese Merchant Guilds: An Historical Inquiry.“
79th Annual Meeting (1986)
Honolulu, HI
- Presidential Address by Edwin R. Bingham on “American Wests through Autobiography and Memoir.“
78th Annual Meeting (1985)
Palo Alto, CA
- Presidential Address by Alexander DeConde on “Clio, Clientage, Ethnocentrism, and War: Some Reflections.“
77th Annual Meeting (1984)
Seattle, WA
- Presidential Address by Don E. Fehrenbacher on “The New Political History and the Coming of the Civil War.“
76th Annual Meeting (1983)
San Diego, CA
- Presidential Address by Donald C. Cutter on “With a Little Help from Their Saints.“
75th Annual Meeting (1982)
San Francisco, CA
- Presidential Address by Leonard J. Arrington on “The Sagebrush Resurrection: New Deal Expenditures in the Western States, 1933-1939.“
74th Annual Meeting (1981)
Eugene, OR
- Presidential Address by Rodman W. Paul on “After the Gold Rush: San Francisco and Portland.“
73rd Annual Meeting (1980)
Los Angeles, CA
- Presidential Address by Robert I. Burns, SJ on “The Paper Revolution in Europe: Crusader Valencia’s Paper Industry: A Technological and Behavioral Breakthrough.“
1970s
72nd Annual Meeting (1979)
Honolulu, HI
- Presidential Address by Donald W. Treadgold on “The United States and East Asia: A Theme with Variations.”
71st Annual Meeting (1978)
- Presidential Address by Woodrow Borah on “Discontinuity and Continuity in Mexican History.“
70th Annual Meeting (1977)
- Presidential Address by Wilbur R. Jacobs on “The Great Despoliation: Environmental Themes in American Frontier History.“
69th Annual Meeting (1976)
68th Annual Meeting (1975)
- Presidential Address by Carl Degler on “Why Historians Change Their Minds.“
67th Annual Meeting (1974)
- Presidential Address by Lynn White, Jr. on “Medieval Engineering and the Sociology of Knowledge.“
66th Annual Meeting (1973)
- Presidential Address by John A. Schutz on “Representation, Taxation, and Tyranny in Revolutionary Massachusetts.“
65th Annual Meeting (1972)
- Presidential Address by Arthur J. Marder on “The Influence of History on Sea Power: The Royal Navy and the Lessons of 1914-1918.”
64th Annual Meeting (1971)
- Presidential Address by Gordon A. Craig on “Georg Gottfried Gervinus: The Historian as Activist.“
63rd Annual Meeting (1970)
- Presidential Address by Earl Pomeroy on “Josiah Royce, Historian in Quest of Community.“
1960s
62nd Annual Meeting (1969)
- Presidential Address by Gerald T. White on “California’s Other Mineral.“
61st Annual Meeting (1968)
- Presidential Address by Solomon Katz on “Remembrance of Things Past.“
“The Historian á la recherche du temps perdu groping for the remembrance of things past, must sometimes long for that cup of tea and those “plump little cakes called madeleines,” which evoked the past for Proust. Assisted by no such restorative tea and cakes, the historian finds himself confronted either by too many or else by too few data about the particular segment of the past to which he is committed. He is aware as well that the facts do not really speak for themselves, but must be ordered in some pattern meaningful at least to him. There is indeed no shortage of patterns, as this paper will show, and if there is a perfect paradigm, it is stored away in heaven. The historian is likely, moreover, to be plagued by doubts about his ability to establish a pattern that recognizes the subtle relationship between history as what happened, wie es eigentlich gewesen ist, and history as his account of what happened. He is, therefore, at once exhilarated by the challenge of his calling and depressed by its difficulty. At such moments of despair, however, he may recall the glow of satisfaction when he detects the first signs of historical sophistication among his own students who no longer regard history as “bunk,” because it is different in different books, but on the contrary consider that to be one of its chief attractions.”
60th Annual Meeting (1967)
- Presidential Address by Brainerd Dyer on “One Hundred Years of Negro Suffrage.“
59th Annual Meeting (1966)
Portland, OR
- Presidential Address by Dorothy O. Johansen on “A Working Hypothesis for the Study of Migrations.“
58th Annual Meeting (1965)- First Appearance of the AHA on the West Coast (PCB schedules only presidential address and a business session)
San Francisco, CA
- Presidential Address by John S. Galbraith on “Some Reflections on the Profession of History.“
57th Annual Meeting (1964)
San Francisco, CA
- Presidential Address by Abraham P. Nasatir on “The Shifting Borderlands.“
56th Annual Meeting (1963)
55th Annual Meeting (1962)
Los Angeles, CA
- Presidential Address by F. H. Soward on “On Becoming and Being a Middle Power: The Canadian Experience.“
54th Annual Meeting (1961)
San Jose, CA
- Presidential Address by Francis H. Herrick on “The Profession of History.“
53rd Annual Meeting (1960)
Seattle, WA
- Presidential Address by Thomas A. Bailey on “America’s Emergence as a World Power: The Myth and the Verity.“
1950s
52nd Annual Meeting (1959)
Salt Lake City, UT
- Presidential Address by Raymond J. Sontag on “Between the Wars.“
51st Annual Meeting (1958)
Whittier, CA
- Presidential Address by John W. Caughey on “California in Third Dimension.“
50th Annual Meeting (1957)
49th Annual Meeting (1956)
Eugene, OR
- Presidential Address by Peter Masten Dunne on “The Renaissance and the Reformation: A Study in Objectivity (Legends Black and White).“
48th Annual Meeting (1955)
Berkeley, CA
- Presidential Address by John D. Hicks on “What’s Right with the History Profession.“
47th Annual Meeting (1954)- 50th Anniversary Year of the PCB
Los Angeles, CA
- Presidential Address by Osgood Hardy on “Ulysses S. Grant, President of the Mexican Southern Railroad.“
46th Annual Meeting (1953)
Davis, CA
- Presidential Address by Colin B. Goodykoontz on “The Founding Fathers and Clio.“
45th Annual Meeting (1952)
Vancouver, BC
- Presidential Address by W. Stull Holt on “Some Consequences of the Urban Movement in American History.”
44th Annual Meeting (1951)
Palo Alto, CA
- Presidential Address by John J. Van Nostrand on “The Historian as Teacher.“
43rd Annual Meeting (1950)
Los Angeles, CA
- Presidential Address by Walter N. Sage on “Canada: The Neighbor to the North.“
1940s
42nd Annual Meeting (1949)
Oakland, CA
- Presidential Address by Carl F. Brand on “Democracy in Great Britain.“
41st Annual Meeting (December 1948)
Seattle, WA
- Presidential Address by Frank J. Klingberg on “British-American Humanitarianism and a Design for Peace.“
40th Annual Meeting (January 1948)
Berkeley, CA
- Presidential Address by Robert Joseph Kerner on “The Russian Eastward Movement: Some Observations on Its Historical Significance.“
39th Annual Meeting (1947)
Claremont, CA
- Presidential Address by Andrew Fish (elected PCB president in 1943) on “Acton, Creighton, and Lea: A Study in History and Ethics.“
- Presidential Address by Frank Harmon Garver (PCB president through 1946) on “Forty Years of Pacific Coast Branch History.“
No Annual Meeting held in 1944 due to the war; business meeting held in January 1945.
No Annual Meeting held in 1943 due to the war; business meeting held in January 1944.
38th Annual Meeting (1942)
Davis, CA
37th Annual Meeting (1941)
Eugene, OR
- Presidential Address by Waldemar Westergaard on “A Danish Diplomat at the Court of Charles II.“
36th Annual Meeting (1940)
Berkeley, CA
1930s
35th Annual Meeting (1939)
Los Angeles, CA
- Presidential Address by Henry S. Lucas on “Activities of a Mediaeval Merchant Family: The Van Arteveldes of Ghent.“
34th Annual Meeting (1938)
Palo Alto, CA
33rd Annual Meeting (1937)
Seattle, WA
32nd Annual Meeting (1936)
Oakland, CA
31st Annual Meeting (1935)
Santa Barbara, CA
- Presidential Address by Edward McMahon on “Lincoln, the Emancipator.“
30th Annual Meeting (1934)
29th Annual Meeting (1933)
Portland, OR
- Presidential Address by Charles E. Chapman on “The Graduate Seminar in History.“
28th Annual Meeting (1932)
Los Angeles, CA
- Presidential Address by Edward Maslin Hulme on “The Personal Equation in History.“
27th Annual Meeting (1931)
Berkeley, CA
- Presidential Address by Dan E. Clark on “Manifest Destiny and the Pacific.”
Published in Volume 1, Issue 1 of the Pacific Historical Review (March 1932)
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1st Annual Convention (25 November 1904)
San Francisco, CA