Support is requested for a three-day conference on the historical demography of aging, to be held at the Breckinridge Public Affairs Center of Bowdoin College in York, Maine, in June, 1990. The conference is designed to stimulate greater interest among historical demographers in aging research. While many important contributions to our understanding of social processes have been made by historical demographers over the past two decades, few American scholars have heretofore paid systematic attention to topics specifically dealing with the older population. yet, such study is not only of historical interest, but is also crucial to furthering social scientific understanding of the relationship between the environment and aging processes. The conference will focus on western societies, with five half-day sessions planned: (1) household systems and the lives of the old: (2) mortality, longevity, and family economy; (3) widowhood, remarriage, and those who never marry; (4) geographic mobility; (5) taking stock; what historical demography can contribute to the understanding of aging processes, and needed directions for future research on the historical demography of aging. The interdisciplinary character of this field will be reflected in the list of participants, which will include sociologists, anthropologists, economists, and historians. Representatives of some of the major European historical demographic research projects will also be invited.
