Kathryn H. Braund
Historian and Author
BOOKS
Mapping Conquest
The Old Federal Road
Deerskins and Duffels
PROJECTS
Bartram and Alabama
Alabama Heritage
Magazine
McKenney-Hall Portrait Gallery
A Traveling Exhibit produced by the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts at Auburn University. Concept and Content by Kathryn Braund; Graphic Design:byLaura Murray.
Alabama Heritage is a quarterly publication devoted to showcasing Alabama's diverse and rich history, including articles on the deerskin trade and the Treaty of New York.
Three projects have focused on interpretation of the visual record left by the artists Charles Bird King and Henry Inman. Their work documented the 1825 Creek Indian treaty delegation to Washington, DC.
The Bartram Trail Conference
The Bartram Trail Conference was established in 1976 to locate and mark the route of the pioneering Philadelphia naturalist William Bartram (1739-1823) across the late eighteenth-century South. The Conference works to promote interest in developing public access recreational trails and botanical gardens within the corridor of Bartram's and supports the study, preservation and interpretation of Bartram's work. The conference hosts a biennial meeting of members at an appropriate location along the Bartram Trail corridor as well as other activities. Membership is open to the public.
Friends of Horseshoe Bend
Horseshoe Bend National Military Park, located in Daviston,
Alabama, was the site of the last and largest battle of the Creek War of 1813-1814, which took place March 27, 1814. The battleground became part of the National Park System in 1959. The Friends organization works to promote the park and its educational activities. In addition to the support of the annual commemorative event, the Friends work to organize events for public school students and support an annual symposium devoted to Creek Indian culture and history and a study of the war. Membership is open to the public.
BIO
Kathryn Braund is Hollifield Professor of Southern History Emerita at Auburn University and a leading scholar of the Muscogee (Creek) Indians of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Her research explores economic exchange and trade, race and ethnicity, travel and scientific descriptions of the Gulf South, and the development of personal and national identity.
Her first book, Deerskins and Duffels: The Creek Indian Trade with Anglo-America, 1685–1815, was the first comprehensive study of the Creek deerskin trade and its profound influence on Creek society. She has also published widely on southeastern Native peoples during the American Revolution, Muscogee (Creek) gender and labor, Creek women during the Red Stick War, and slavery among the Creeks.
Dr. Braund has edited and annotated the writings of three influential eighteenth-century authors—William Bartram, James Adair, and Bernard Romans—and has edited three essay collections: Fields of Vision: Essays on the Travels of William Bartram; Tohopeka: Rethinking the Creek War; and The Attention of a Traveller: Essays on William Bartram's Travels and Legacy. She is also co-author of a history of the Federal Road through Alabama.
Her most recent book, Mapping Conquest: The Battle Maps of Horseshoe Bend (University of Georgia Press, 2024), examines the cartographic history of one of the pivotal battles of the Creek War. She is currently completing a new book on the Creek War of 1813–1814.
Beyond her scholarship, Dr. Braund is deeply committed to public history and historic preservation. She founded and served as the first president of the Friends of Horseshoe Bend National Military Park and has also served as president and board member of the Alabama Historical Association, the Friends of the Alabama Archives, and the Bartram Trail Conference.
CONTACT
For inquiries about speaking engagements, contact Kathryn at braunkh[at]auburn.edu.