Our look back at the AHA’s 125 years of existence continues in the February 2009 issue of Perspectives on History, now available online. First up, AHA president Laurel Thatcher Ulrich explains how you can be part of the 125 celebration by giving a gift, in “Of Cats, Hats, and Remembrance of Things Past.” Then, David Darlington continues the Timelines article series by looking at the history of the AHA’s Honorary Foreign Member award.

Catch up with professional, international, and D.C. news in a number of articles. Find out “What’s in the February AHR?,” read about a recent gift for National History Day, and hear what historians are suggesting for the new Archivist of the United States. Also, in response to the raid on a Russian human rights archive, read the AHA’s letter to Russian president Dmitry Medvedev. And finally, Lee White of the National Coalition for History writes about President Obama’s steps toward government transparency and a number of happenings in Washington.

A variety of other topics are tackled in this issue: Martin R. Mulford discusses “The Commodification and Deprofessionalization of the PhD,” Joyce Antler and Elinor Fuchs look at “History as Theater,” and Jonathan Rose rethinks graduate education in history.

You’ll also find three articles from a Forum on Intellectual Property. Eileen Boris introduces the two other participants in the forum and begins the discussion of the impact of the internet on scholarly work. Michael Les Benedict explores how and why copyright law developed, looking back to the 1600 and 1700s, and considers and how the internet revolution will affect copyright laws for the future. Alice Kessler-Harris shares a personal anecdote about how writers must look out for themselves and their copyrights in this new digital world.

And finally, two In Memoriam pieces recognize the lives and works of Jeanne Boydston and Don Higginbotham.

This post first appeared on AHA Today.