The Association of for the Advancement of Baltic studies (AABS) was officially established on December 1, 1968, following the conclusion of the first conference on Baltic studies organized by the founding members of the AABS and held at the University of Maryland. As stated in the AABS Constitution, the Association’s basic aim is “the promotion of research and education in Baltic studies.” Further, it encourages “the organization of interested scholars to increase the quality of research” through the sponsorship of “meetings and conferences for the exchange of professional views and the evaluation of research.”
The Association was founded and administered early on by a largely volunteer Board of Directors, elected officers and staff, including its Administrative Executive Director, Janis Gaigulis, who served in this capacity from 1968 through his retirement from the position in 1992. He remained an active Senior Advisor to the AABS until his death in 2005. His dedication to the administration and success of the AABS throughout his life led to the moniker “Mr. AABS”.
Another active leader of the AABS was Valters Nollendorfs, who held various positions within the AABS, including President 1976-78, Chairman of the Research Committee 1978-1984, Vice-President of Conferences 1984-1986 and Academic Executive Director 1992-1996. Many prominent Baltic studies intellectual leaders and community advocates have been involved in the AABS over the past 40+ years, including Ulo Sinberg, Gundar King, Valdis Zeps, Rein Taagepera, Tonu Parming, Vaira Vikis-Freiberga, Toivo Raun and Ivar Ivask to name just a few who are represented within the collection.
For the first two decades of the AABS, the intellectual focus was primarily on communication and exchange of ideas and research within the West, including conferences sponsored by the AABS which were held exclusively within North America. While efforts were made to promote exchange with the international community, including an association with the Baltische Historische Kommission in the late 1970s and 1980s, it wasn’t until the independence of the Baltic States in the early 1990s that a new focus of international scholarly exchange was possible.
Unique challenges in the promotion of scholarly exchange were faced by AABS during the Soviet-era occupation of the Baltic States including the ability of information and scholars to travel outside of the Baltic region. The AABS tried to further the exchange of ideas in the 1970s and 1980s through invitation of Baltic scholars to join their biannual conferences in North America while in some instances sponsoring their visas, at times with limited success.
Throughout the history of the Association it has been challenged to remain an apolitical scholarly organization, even when significant and historic events within the Baltic states could have dictated otherwise. Leaders within the AABS actively reiterated its goals and purpose to outside individuals and organizations to remain a scholarly organization while still promoting the expression of new research through the publication of its Journal of Baltic Studies and many monographs considered significant to the furthering of Baltic humanistic studies.
Internationalizing the AABS’s scholarly activities became a priority from independence of the Baltic states forward including the opening of the Baltic Academic Center in Riga, Latvia on May 15, 1992 (in a joint venture with the International Research and Exchanges Board); the Commission for Academic Reform in the Baltic States; and the application of the AABS in 1991 for membership in the American Council of Learned Societies, which was accepted on April 30, 1992.
By 1998, through a need to sustain the AABS financially and academically, the Association made the decision to re-organize its executive leadership structure including a move of the administrative office to Portland, Oregon from its long-time residence in New York. The re-organization included the move from an entirely volunteer organization to professionalizing several of the staff positions, including the provision of salaries for some key positions.
The late 1990s and early 2000s saw the AABS at a “crossroads” with membership falling and the long-time core of the organization both retiring from active involvement as well as passing away. The Association sought a new physical home for its executive administration and turned to the University of Washington, where the Association’s Executive Office is now based.
Organized into 5 accessions.
Contains correspondence, notes, by-laws, constitution, minutes, reports, publications, administrative files, conference files, grant files, subject files, marketing material, member lists, donor lists, clippings, institutional agreements, technical documentation, press releases, publications, photographs, audio tapes, microfilm and bound copies of the Journal of Baltic Studies.
Portions of the collections are restricted as indicated. Contact the Special Collections division of the University of Washington Libraries for details.
Restrictions may exist on copying, quotation, or publication. Contact University of Washington Libraries Special Collections for details.
Conferences by location and date are as follows:
1st Conference – University of Maryland, Nov 28 - Dec 1, 1968
2nd Conference – San Jose State College, Nov 26-29, 1970
3rd Conference – University of Toronto, May 11-14, 1972
4th Conference – University of Illinois at Chicago, May 15-18, 1974
5th Conference – Columbia University, New York, May 20-23, 1976
6th Conference – University of Toronto, Canada, May 11-14, 1978
7th Conference – Georgetown University, Washington D.C., June 5-8, 1980
8th Conference – University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota, June 17-19, 1982
9th Conference – University of Montreal, Canada, June 14-16, 1984
10th Conference – University of Wisconsin at Madison, May 29-31, 1986
11th Conference – University of Maryland, June 8-11, 1988
12th Conference – University of Washington, Seattle, June 21-23, 1990
13th Conference – University of Toronto, Canada, June 10-13, 1992
14th Conference – University of Illinois at Chicago, June 8-11, 1994
15th Conference – Bentley College, Waltham, Massachusetts, June 27-29, 1996
16th Conference – Indiana University, June 19-21, 1998
17th Conference – University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, June 2000
18th Conference – John Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, June 6-8, 2002
19th Conference – University of Toronto, Canada, June 3-5, 2004
20th Conference – George Washington University, Washington D.C., 2006
The sub-series of Governor's Commission on Eastern European & Captive Nation History was the New Jersey commission on which Janis Gaigulis served to "conduct a thorough study of public school curriculum, including textbooks and the pertinent materials dealing with the history of the peoples of Eastern Europe...determine whether the history of these people is fairly and accurately presented in our public schools and their curricula....and make recommendations it deems appropriate." Included are correspondence, notes, memos, scholar lists and reports.
The majority of the Scholarly Exchange series contained in the General Exchanges sub-series is unsorted, but arranged in a general chronologic order. Contained in the series are the following topics and items of note: records pertaining to Baltic Studies student exchange programs & study abroad including BALSSI [Baltic Studies Summer Institution], national & international conferences attended by or co-sponsored by the AABS and its members, formalized contracts/agreements of information exchange between the AABS and academic institutions and other associations, academic reform programs, travel notes and correspondence by AABS members in the pursuit of scholarly exchange in the Baltic States, the Baltic Academic Center [Riga, Latvia] & IREX [International Research & Exchanges Board], the Baltische Historische Kommission, library reform & expansion in the Baltic states, exchange of published material & booklists, foreign language news clippings and records documenting Janis Gaigulis’s involvement in the New Jersey Governor’s Commission on Eastern European and Captive Nation History. Includes as well individual correspondence by scholars, students, elected officials, and Baltic community members.
The sub-series of Subject Files (approximately 2.5 c.f. of material) retains the original file titles and content designated by Janis Gaigulis with regards to information on scholarly exchanges. Approximately one additional cubic foot of material was most likely created by Valters Nollendorfs and retains its original file titles and contents. All files in this sub-series are organized by subject.
The main publication of the AABS is the Journal of Baltic Studies, first published as the Bulletin of Baltic Studies in 1970, which ran under this title for eight issues through 1971. The new title was adopted in 1972 and continues to the present as the Journal of Baltic Studies. The Baltic Studies Newsletter was first issued in 1976. Other publications by the AABS include Summary Proceedings of various early conferences (1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 8th and 9th conferences – See Conference Series for publication drafts, correspondence, general administration documentation of publishing) as well as individual author volumes on a variety of Baltic studies topics.
Material in the Publication sub-series are divided by dominant publication type. General publication and documentation spanning all publications are contained in the general administration sub-series.