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The fourth series, Professional Organizations, documents Watson's long contribution of service to national, state, and local professional historical organizations and his work for the promotion of history. His work with the American Historical Association includes serving on the Ad hoc committee on Ph.D. programs in history, as well as being a session chair and member of the committee to collect the basic data of American political history. For six years he served the Organization of American Historians, and its predecessor organization, the Mississippi Valley Historical Association, as a member of their prize committees. Documents in this series shed light on the changes in prize policy and process. In addition to serving as its president from 1976-1977, Watson served on numerous annual program committees and as session chairs for the Southern Historical Association. This series contains material on program and nominating committees, sessions, and his work on the board of editors of the Journal of Southern History.