Washington History Submission Guidelines

(Successor to Records of the Columbia Historical Society)

Washington History seeks articles for its next three scheduled issues, due to be published in April 2008, Fall 2008, and Spring 2009. The Editors are seeking a wide variety of scholarship for these issues, with a particular focus in the April 2008 issue.

April 2008 issue: Special Focus: 1968 in Washington.
Editors especially seeking articles broadly focused on 1968 riots in Washington - including causes, results, and impact on the socio-economic fabric of the city. Also, images appropriate for a potential photographic essay on the events of 1968 are highly desired. All articles should be written to appeal to a broad and diverse audience of scholars, students and the general public.

Deadline, April 2008 issue, initial submissions: January 15, 2008.
Send submissions to April 2008 Editor Matthew Gilmore at dchist@hotmail.com

Fall 2008 and Spring 2009 Issues
For these issues, Washington History is seeking articles on all subjects related to Washington, D.C.
Editor for these issues will be Zachary Schrag. At this time, send submissions for Fall 2008 and Spring 2009 issues to Matthew Gilmore at dchist@hotmail.com

EDITORIAL GUIDELINES

Washington History, a richly illustrated, semiannual, refereed journal, seeks articles on the history of the Washington metropolitan area that appeal to scholars, students, and the general public. Manuscripts must be sound in scholarship, fully referenced with endnotes, and invitingly written.

The journal seeks articles on all aspects of Metropolitan Washington area history: social, cultural, architectural, urban, and political history, and historical geography. While manuscripts on Washington as the federal capital are welcome, they must relate the subject matter in some significant way to the life of the residential and commercial city.

Manuscripts may take the following forms:

1. Analytical manuscripts that argue a thesis concerning the history of Washington, D.C. Authors must state their theses clearly and argue them effectively. Articles of this type must be broad enough in subject matter to be considered significant contributions to our understanding of Washington history.
2. Descriptive articles that provide previously unpublished information. Authors must provide historical context for their subject matter, interpreting its importance in the light of related events, personalities, or trends in Washington or elsewhere.
3. First-hand accounts or reminiscences of events or figures in Washington history. If the account is written by the eye-witness, the author's relationship to the subject must be stated and historical context provided that will allow the reader to appreciate the topic's significance. If the account is based on oral history from someone else, the account must include text that analyzes and interprets the quotations in the context of other sources.
4. Picture essays based on photographs, works of art, architecture, artifacts, or illustrations accompanied by a ten-page (2,500-word) introduction. Such essays may argue a thesis or provide interesting new information.

Manuscript length is flexible. Typiclal length is between 3,750 words (15 double-spaced pages at 250 words per page) and 6,250 words (25 pages). Please use minimum 1" margins and the font "Arial" in 12 points. Please use the Endnote function in your wordprocessor. Generally, you should limit endnotes to those necessary to document sources. Digressive notes are discouraged: if information is important, it should appear in the text. On style, see Chicago Manual of Style, 14th edition, rev., and enclosed guidelines.

Please submit one copy of the manuscript along with photocopies of at least eight possible illustrations with caption information. Once an article is peer reviewed, accepted, and revised, authors will be required to forward a version of the article on disk in Microsoft Word and original prints (or slides) of accepted photographs.

WASHINGTON HISTORY STYLE GUIDELINES

1. Capitalization: Capitalize names of agenices or units of government such as the Civil Service or Department of State. When referring to more than one agency or unit of government, the words department, county, etc., are lower cased. For example, the departments of State and Treasury; Montgomery and Fairfax counties. The same holds true for two streets: First Street, N.W., but First and G streets, N.W.
   
   Other capitalization issues:
   U.S. Congress, congressional
   House of Representatives, the House, the congressman
   United States Court of Appeals, the court
   But United States Supreme Court, the Court
   Bureau of the Census, Census Bureau, the bureau
   Kennedy administration
   federal government
   President Bill Clinton, the president



2. Punctuation.
   Commas: Commas and other punctuation should fall inside the quotation marks. In lists, the serial comma should be used: "The books are blue, gray, and red."
   
   Ellipses: Three-pointed ellipses are used to denote missing language within a sentence (missing . . . in a sentence). Four-pointed ellipses denote missing language to the end of the sentence and/or a number of missing sentences (denote missing. . . .).
   
   
3. Numbers: are spelled out from one to ten; after that they are given as figures, except when they appear at the beginning of a sentence. Fractional numbers appear as figures, "1.2 million people" or 4 ½ Street, S.W. If a sentence has both numbers under and over ten, make them consistent: "they called for 6, 18, and 27 parts."



4. Congress: members should be identified by state and party affiliation: Senate Paul Sarbanes, Democrat of Maryland; Senator Paul Sarbanes (D-Maryland).



5. Periodicals: titles are written in italic, including the location of the paper when that location is part of the paper's title. Otherwise the location is given for clarity but left in roman type preceding the italicized title. Always lower case and do not italicize an initial "the."

WASHINGTON HISTORY ENDNOTE GUIDELINES

Generally speaking, Washington History follows the 14th (revised) edition of The Chicago Manual of Style for endnotes. However, there are some exceptions. Therefore writers are urged to read this guide before referring to Chicago for endnote style.

Because space is limited, writers are asked not to write long descriptive or digressive endnotes. If the information is essential to the story, please include it in the body of the piece; otherwise, leave it out.

Writers are urged to limit the number of endnotes. One note per paragraph is preferred when possible. Do not insert endnote numbers within sentences.

1. Please double space all notes. Italicize (DO NOT UNDERLINE) titles.
2. Dates follow this form: Jan. 1, 1990 not 1 Jan. 1990 (abbreviate months).
3. Do not use "p." or "pp." for page references (see exception in note 9).
4. Indicate a span of pages as "123-96" not "123-196."
5. Use standard, not Postal Service, abbreviations: Pa., N.Y., not PA or NY.
6. "Ibid." should be used when a citation is duplicated in the immediately succeeding note, followed by a different page if necessary. Later references use a short form, not "op. cit." (see examples). Please do not use loc.cit., infra, or ff.
7. In deference to the use of microfilm, newspaper citations should include the headline, author, name of the newspaper, date, and page number. If a clipping is undated or unsourced and is found in a a scrapbook or collection, cite the article as part of the particular collection.
8. First references must be complete. Do not state that successors will be shortened.
9. Succeeding references should be abbreviated. Please refer to these guidelines for common abbreviations.

SAMPLE NOTES

1. (First reference:) "Barney to Visit," undated clipping, Alice Pike Barney file, Washingtoniana Division, D.C. Public Library. (Subsequent references:) "Barney to Visit," Barney file, DCPL. [Do not use "Martin Luther King Memorial Library"]
2. Aug. 16, 1949, Congressional Record, 43rd Cong., 2d sess., 3, pt. 6:1999, 2003-05. [later: Aug. 16, 1949, Cong. Rec., 2006-09.]
3. Congressional Globe, 39th Cong., 2d sess., 1867, 39, pt. 9:9905.
4. Constance McLaughlin Green, Washington: A History of the Capital, 1800-1950, vol. 1 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1976), 292-95. [later: Green, Washington, 1:300-08.]
5. Constance McLaughlin Green, Washington: Village and Capital, 1800-1878 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1962), 232. [later: Green, Washington: Village, 246.]
6. Constance McLaughlin Green, Washington: Capital City, 1879-1950 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1962), 116-45. [later: Green, Washington: Capital, 116.]
7. James Smith to Ann Jones, Sept. 18, 1858, entry 9, Records of St. Elizabeths Hospital, Record Group 418, National Archives. [later: Smith to Jones, Sept. 18, 1858, RG 418, NA.]
8. Commissioners of the District of Columbia to Thomas Jefferson, Jan. 5, 1793, Records of the Office of Public Buildings, Record Group 42, National Archives. [later: Commissioners to Jefferson, Jan. 5, 1793, RG 42, NA.]
9. Deed, Dec. 27, 1766, Provincial Court Records, 1765-70, Book DD4, pp. 165-68 [NOTE EXCEPTION TO RULE AGAINST USING PP.], Accession #17267, Maryland State Archives.
10. Statement of Fact Regarding the Duncanson Duel, Oct. 7, 1798, James Greenleaf Collection, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress. [later: Duncanson Duel, Oct. 7, 1798, Greenleaf Collection, LC.]
11. Editorial, "Stop the Highway," Washington Post, Apr. 5, 1950, A20.
12. New York Times, May 15, 1858, 6.
13. Eugene Meyer, "Baseball Returns to D.C.," Washington Post, Apr. 8, 2001, A1.
14. Geoffrey Arend, Air World's Great Airports: Miami International (New York: Air Cargo News, 1986), 211.
15. Ethel M. Morganson, "Davy Burnes, His Ancestors, and Their Descendants," Records of the Columbia Historical Society 50 (1949-50): 103. [later: Morganson, "Davy Burnes," 103.]
16. John Handley, interview with author, Washington, Jan. 5, 1989. [later: Handley interview, Jan. 5, 1989.]
17. Marvin Caplan, "Eat Anywhere!" Washington History 1-1 (Spring 1989): 29-33.
18. Bureau of the Census, Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1975 (Washington, GPO, 1975), 342-48.
19. William V. Cox, comp., 1800-1900: Celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the Establishment of the Seat of Government in the District of Columbia, 56th Cong. 2d sess., 1900, H. Doc. 552, plate 8 opp. 39.
20. Suzanne Berry Sherwood, Foggy Bottom 1800-1975: A Study in the Uses of an Urban Neighborhood, G.W. Washington Studies, no. 7 (Washington: George Washington University, 1978), 67-70.
21. Robert Kinzer, "The Roots of the Integrationist-Sparatist Dilemma," in Black Business Enterprise, ed. Ronald Bailey (New York: Basic Books, 1971), 55.
22. Gordon Parks, Choice of Weapons (1966; reprint, St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1986), 65.
23. George Washington to Tobias Lear, Aug. 28, 1794, George Washington Papers, ser. 2, vol. 19m, 258, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress. (later: Washington to Lear, Aug. 28, 1794, Washington Papers, LC.)
24. Spencie Love, "One Blood: The Charles R. Drew Legend and the Trauma of Race in America," Ph.D. diss., Duke University, 1990, 100-02.