While the number of jobs in history is down, the number of historians attending the annual meeting of the American Historical Association this weekend isn’t. The group’s convention here attracted more than 5,800 people—primarily faculty members from the United States and abroad, but also graduate students, publishers, and government and museum officials.

Last year, in Washington, D.C., 5,300 people attended the meeting.

Arnita A. Jones, the association’s executive director, attributed the increase this year primarily to the availability of lodgings at bargain rates, by New York standards. The association's practice of confirming its meeting locations several years in advance helped it obtain the discounts. “The hotels came to us right after 9/11”—when they feared visitors would shun New York in response to the collapse of the World Trade Center towers—with a $129-a-night offer, said Ms. Jones. “We just snapped it up.”...