[3] It was established when Peter Benes, then a graduate student in Boston University’s American & New England Studies Program, organized a gathering of scholars interested in early New England gravestones; initially planned for about forty participants, by the time the seminar occurred some 116 scholars, curators, preservationists and enthusiasts had assembled to hear nineteen lectures.
[7] The first Proceedings, Puritan Gravestone Art, edited by Peter Benes, was published jointly by Boston University and The Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife, in 1977, and included landmark articles like David D. Hall, "The Gravestone Image as a Puritan Cultural Code.
[9] The Dublin Seminar proceedings were associated with Boston University until Historic Deerfield became its partner and co-sponsor in 2008.
[10] Since 1976, the seminar has hosted almost 750 scholarly presentations at its annual meeting and published nearly 400 articles in its annual Proceedings, including work by leading historians including Kevin M. Sweeney, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Jane Nylander and Abbott Lowell Cummings.
[2] In 2011, Dublin Seminar founders Peter and Jane Montague Benes received the Bay State Legacy Award for their contribution to scholarship.