| 2019-2021 | Lauren Benton, Yale University |
| 2017-2019 | Sarah Barringer Gordon, University of Pennsylvania |
| 2015-2017 | Rebecca J. Scott, University of Michigan |
| 2013-2015 | Michael Grossberg, Indiana University |
| 2011-2013 | Bruce H. Mann, Harvard University |
| 2009-2011 | Constance Backhouse, University of Ottawa |
| 2007-2009 | Maeva Marcus, George Washington University |
| 2005-2007 | Charles Donahue, Jr., Harvard University |
| 2003-2005 | Harry N. Scheiber, University of California, Berkeley |
| 2001-2003 | Robert W. Gordon, Yale University |
| 1999-2001 | Thomas A. Green, University of Michigan |
| 1997-1999 | Laura Kalman, University of California, Santa Barbara |
| 1995-1997 | Paul L. Murphy, University of Minnesota |
| 1993-1995 | Harold M. Hyman, Rice University |
| 1991-1993 | R.H. Helmholz, University of Chicago |
| 1989-1991 | Lawrence M. Friedman, Stanford University |
| 1985-1989 | Barbara Aronstein Black, Columbia University |
| 1981-1985 | Morris S. Arnold, University of Arkansas, Little Rock |
| 1979-1981 | Milton M. Klein, University of Tennessee |
| 1977-1979 | Stanley N. Katz, University of Chicago/Princeton University |
| 1975-1977 | Joseph H. Smith, Columbia University |
| 1973-1975 | Herbert A. Johnson, Institute of Early American History and Culture |
| 1971-1973 | George L. Haskins, University of Pennsylvania |
| 1966-1967 | Erwin C. Surrency, Temple University |
| 1964-1965 | Samuel E. Thorne, Harvard University |
| 1962-1963 | Ralph A. Newman, American University |
| 1959-1960 | Morris D. Forkosch, Brooklyn Law School |
| 1957-1958 | Erwin C. Surrency, Temple University |
