Megan poses in front of a white wall that is split with a dark blue bottom half. Her hands are on the back of a chair and she is wearing a blue blazer.

UMaine Machias Dean Megan Walsh elected to membership in the American Antiquarian Society

October 21, 2024 News

MACHIAS, Maine ― University of Maine at Machias Dean and Campus Director Megan Walsh has been elected to membership in the American Antiquarian Society (AAS), a 212-year-old national research library and community of learners dedicated to discovering and sharing a deeper understanding of the American past. 

Walsh joins more than 1,100 members from 48 states, the District of Columbia and five other countries. Elected for their achievement in academic or public life, AAS members include scholars, collectors, librarians, artists, writers and history enthusiasts. Since the society’s founding in 1812, 14 U.S. presidents, more than 75 Pulitzer Prize winners, scores of Bancroft Prize winners, many Guggenheim fellows and several MacArthur Award winners have been elected to membership.

Before joining UMaine Machias in December 2022, Walsh served at St. Bonaventure University as dean of the school of arts and sciences, director of the university honors program, and chair of the department of English. She is the author of “The Portrait and the Book: Illustration and Literary Culture in Early America,” published by the University of Iowa Press in 2017, and co-editor with Willian Huntting Howell of Frank J. Webb’s “The Garies and Their Friends,” published by Broadview Press in 2016.

At AAS, Walsh has held AAS-National Endowment for the Humanities Long-Term Fellow 2019-2020 and a Northeast-Modern Language Association Fellow in 2013-14.

Located in Worcester, Massachusetts, AAS holds the world’s largest and most accessible collection of original printed, handwritten, and visual sources from before 1900 in what is now the United States. The library of over 4 million items includes books, pamphlets, broadsides, newspapers, periodicals, children’s literature, music and graphic arts material. AAS connects people across the globe with these collections through its digital catalog and resources, online exhibitions and virtual learning experiences. In addition, it supports dozens of researchers, artists and writers each year with a variety of fellowship programs. In 2013, President Barack Obama presented the society with the National Humanities Medal in a White House ceremony.

To learn more, visit americanantiquarian.org.