In last week’s What We’re Reading, we linked to a New York Times story about an article under consideration for publication in the American Historical Review. This week we link to a follow-up in the NYT about how the article was rejected, and to AHR editor Robert Schneider’s response to the whole leaked article situation. Then, read about two policy statements that deal with oral history and Institutional Review Boards (IRB). Lincoln gets two mentions in this week’s post when we link to an interview with James McPherson and to new photos on the Library of Congress Flickr page. In the theme of digital history we have three links: a new archive of medieval manuscripts, Lisa Spiro’s take on the digital humanities in 2008, and an online museum scavenger hunt. Finally, you may scream for it, but what do you really know about the history of ice cream?

• Journal Rejects Essay About Nixon Tapes
  The New York Times reports that last Friday the American Historical Review rejected Peter Klingman’s article that examined omissions and mistakes in Abuse of Power, Stanley Kutler’s collection of transcripts of Watergate tapes. While this article quotes AHR editor Robert Schneider saying, “despite its intrinsic interest, is too narrow in focus for this publication,” see his longer response at HNN. In last week’s What We’re Reading, we pointed to an earlier New York Times article about Klingman’s article, which had been curiously leaked to the paper.
• Oral History Wins and Loses
  Zach Schrag summarizes two recent policy statements about IRB review of oral history, noting that the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has taken a position in line with recommendations from the AHA and other historical organizations, while the University of Illinois at Chicago has taken the opposite tack, and brought oral history at least partially under the same regulations as the hard sciences.
• Historian for Hire
  Former NEH chair Bruce Cole interviews historian and entrepreneur Phil Cantelon of History Associates in the latest issue of Humanities. In the interview, Cantelon discusses the form of public history his firm performs–working with public records, developing archives, and researching and writing historical studies for clients.
• 5 Questions for James McPherson on Abraham Lincoln & His Legacy
  The Britannica Blog interviews civil war historian James McPherson and picks his brain on Abraham Lincoln.
• Lincoln Photos Added to Library’s Flickr Stream
  A post on the Library of Congress blog announces the addition of new Lincoln photos to the LOC’s Flickr stream.
• A Digital Window on the Medieval World
  The Chronicle of Higher Education’s Wired Campus blog profiles the Catalogue of Digitized Manuscripts, “a centralized online archive” of medieval manuscripts from around the world.
• Digital Humanities in 2008, Part I
  Lisa Spiro at the Digital Scholarship in the Humanities blog gives her “synthesis of digital humanities in 2008.” This post, which is the first in a series, takes a look at “the emergence of digital humanities (DH), defining DH and its significance, and community-building efforts.”
• Crowdsourcing the Smithsonian: There are prizes!
  The Archives Found blog notes that the Smithsonian, along with 15 other museums, is participating in a “scavenger hunt/content-building contest” called Wikipedia Loves Art. You can participate in the contest too, just go to the Wikipedia Loves Art Flickr page for rules and more information.
• History Quiz: The Ice Cream Wars
  Test your knowledge of the history of ice cream with this fun quiz from the National History Education Clearinghouse.

Contributors: Elisabeth Grant, Vernon Horn, and Robert B. Townsend

This post first appeared on AHA Today.