Nashville, TN, USA — The American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) proudly announces the winners of the 71st annual Leadership in History Awards, the most prestigious recognition for achievement in the preservation and interpretation of state and local history. This year, AASLH is proud to confer sixty-three national awards honoring people, projects, exhibits, and publications.
“The Leadership in History Awards is AASLH’s highest distinction and the winners represent the best in the field,” said Trina Nelson Thomas, AASLH Awards Chair and Director, Stark Art & History Venue, Stark Foundation. “This year, we are pleased to distinguish each recipient’s commitment and innovation to the interpretation of history, as well as their leadership for the future of state and local history.”
The Leadership in History Awards Program was initiated in 1945 to build standards of excellence in the collection, preservation, and interpretation of state and local history throughout America. Each nomination is peer-reviewed by AASLH’s state captains. Final awards are decided by the Awards Committee, comprised of AASLH’s fourteen regional representatives and the National Awards Chair.
The awards include:
The Award of Merit which is presented for excellence in history programs, projects, and people when compared with similar activities nationwide;
The Albert B. Corey Award is named in honor of a founder and former president of AASLH, and recognizes primarily volunteer-operated historical organizations that best display the qualities of vigor, scholarship, and imagination in their work. This year’s winner is the Glencoe Historical Society in Glencoe, IL.
The HIP (History in Progress) Awardis given at the discretion of the awards committee to 5% or less of the total winners of the Award of Merit. It is for a project that is highly inspirational, exhibits exceptional scholarship, and/or is exceedingly entrepreneurial in terms of funding, partnerships, or collaborations, creative problem solving, or unusual project design and inclusiveness. The 2016 recipients are Windsor Historical Society, Minnesota Historical Society, and the Nashville Public Library.
The Michael Kammen Award, named in honor of the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and Cornell University’s Newton C. Farr Professor of American History and Culture Emeritus. It is presented to a history institution with an annual budget under $250,000 that has shown outstanding effort. The winner of this award will be announced at the Awards Banquet.
Presentation of the awards will be made at a special banquet during the 2016 AASLH Annual Meeting in Detroit, Michigan, on Friday, September 16. The banquet is supported by a generous contribution from the HISTORY™.
California
Name: The University of California, Santa Barbara, Public History Program, Division of Student Affairs, Division of Humanities and Fine Arts, and UCSB Library, Special Research Collections – May 23, 2014 Isla Vista Memorial Archive
Nomination: for the exhibit We Remember Them: Acts of Love and Compassion in Isla Vista, and the May 23, 2014 Isla Vista Memorial Archive
Name: California African American Museum, Stephanie DeLancey, and dewdropstudios
Nomination: for the exhibit Coloring Independently: 1940s African American Film Stills from the Collection of the California African American Museum
Name: Oakland Museum of California
Nomination: for the exhibit Pacific Worlds
Connecticut
Name: Gunn Historical Museum
Nomination: for the exhibit Over There: Washington in the Great War
Name: Connecticut’s Old State House
Nomination: for the project Connecticut’s Kid Governor
Name: Fairfield Museum and History Center
Nomination: for the exhibit The Pequot War and the Founding of Fairfield, 1637-1639
Name: Stephanie Lantiere
Nomination: for her leadership and dedication to improving the professional practices of the Avery Memorial Association
Name: Windsor Historical Society
Nomination: for the Strong-Howard House Reinterpretation Project
This nomination is also the recipient of a HIP (History in Progress) Award.
District of Columbia
Name: President Lincoln’s Cottage
Nomination: for the project 2015 Students Opposing Slavery International Summit
Name: Ford’s Theatre Society
Nomination: for the Remembering Lincoln Digital Collection
Delaware
Name: Aleasa Jay Hogate
Nomination: for her dedicated and committed service to the collections, preservation, and interpretation of the 17th-century New Sweden Colony in the Delaware Valley
Florida
Name: HistoryMiami Museum
Nomination: for the exhibit Operation Pedro Pan: The Cuban Children’s Exodus
Illinois
Name: Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site
Nomination: for the project Wetlands & Waterways: The Key to Cahokia
Name: Jane Nicoll
Nomination: for a lifetime of dedication to preserving and interpreting the history of Park Forest, IL
Name: Elgin History Museum, Grindstone Productions, and Ernie Broadnax
Nomination: for the project Two Boxcars, Three Blocks, One City: A Story of Elgin’s African American Heritage
Indiana
Name: Wilma L. Moore
Nomination: for a lifetime of dedication to preserving and interpreting Indiana’s African American heritage
Name: Indiana Historical Society
Nomination: for the project Indiana History for the Secondary Classroom
Iowa
Name: State Historical Museum of Iowa
Nomination: for the exhibit First in the Nation: Shaping Presidential Politics Since 1972
Kansas
Name: Sandy Gantz, Constitution Hall, and Lecompton Historical Society
Nomination: for the project 4th Graders’ QR Codes for Historic Sites in Lecompton, Kansas
Louisiana
Name: The Historic New Orleans Collection
Nomination: for the project Purchased Lives: New Orleans and the Domestic Slave Trade, 1808-1865
Name: West Baton Rouge Museum
Nomination: for the project Cohn High School: How We Love Thee
Maryland
Name: Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum
Nomination: for the project Artifacts of Outlander: Connecting the Public to History and Archaeology Using Popular Culture
Massachusetts
Name: Massachusetts Historical Society
Nomination: for the exhibit The Private Jefferson: From the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society
Name: Peabody Essex Museum
Nomination: for the project Re-envisioning the Ropes Mansion
Name: Historic New England, Justin H. Goodstein, and the Haymarket Pushcart Association
Nomination: for The Haymarket Project
Minnesota
Name: Archives and Special Collections, University of Minnesota Libraries
Nomination: for the exhibit People on the Move: 50 Years of Documenting and Researching Migration Experiences at the Immigration History Research Center & Archives
Name: Maritime Heritage Minnesota
Nomination: for the Minnesota Dugout Canoe Project
Name: James A. Stolpestad and Ramsey County Historical Society
Nomination: for the publication Custom House: Restoring a St. Paul Landmark in Lowertown
Name: Brenda J. Child
Nomination: for the publication My Grandfather’s Knocking Sticks: Ojibwe Family Life and Labor on the Reservation
Name: Anton Treuer
Nomination: for the publication Warrior Nation: A History of the Red Lake Ojibwe
Name: Minnesota Historical Society
Nomination: for the project Peb Yog Hmoob – We Are Hmong Minnesota
This nomination is also the recipient of a HIP (History in Progress) Award.
Missouri
Name: The National Museum of Toys and Miniatures and West Office Exhibition Design
Nomination: for the exhibit Toys from the Attic: Stories of American Childhood
Name: St. Louis County Parks — Jefferson Barracks Historic Site
Nomination: for the exhibit The Courageous and Faithful: The Cavalry at Jefferson Barracks
Name: Springfield-Greene County Library District, Missouri History Museum, Museum of Osteopathic Medicine, the National World War I Museum and Memorial, and the State Historical Society of Missouri
Nomination: for the project Over There: Missouri & the Great War
Name: Missouri History Museum
Nomination: for the exhibit A Walk in 1875 St. Louis
Name: Missouri History Museum
Nomination: for the project History Clubhouse
Montana
Name: Montana Historical Society
Nomination: for the exhibit Forgotten Pioneers: The Chinese in Montana
New Jersey
Name: Morven Museum & Garden
Nomination: for the project Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh: Couple of an Age
New Mexico
Name: New Mexico History Museum, Judy Reinhartz, Ph.D., and Dennis Reinhartz, Ph.D.
Nomination: for the project Mapas historicas de Nuevo Mexico = Historic New Mexico Maps
Name: Joy Poole
Nomination: for the publication Over the Santa Fe Trail to Mexico: The Travel Diaries and Autobiography of Dr. Rowland Willard
New York
Name: The Cayuga Heights History Project
Nomination: for the Cayuga Heights History Project website
Name: Brooklyn Historical Society
Nomination: for the project Crossing Borders, Bridging Generations
Name: Bruce W. Dearstyne
Nomination: for the publication The Spirit of New York: Defining Events in the Empire State’s History
North Carolina
Name: North Carolina Museum of History
Nomination: for the exhibit Starring North Carolina!
Name: Greensboro Historical Museum
Nomination: for the exhibit Warnersville: Our Home, Our Neighborhood, Our Stories
Name: North Carolina Office of Archives and History, Mark Anderson Moore, Jessica A. Bandel, and Michael Hill
Nomination: for the publication The Old North State at War: The North Carolina Civil War Atlas
Ohio
Name: Dayton History
Nomination: for the Carillon Brewing Company
Name: Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens
Nomination: for the program Meet the Staff–Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens/Akron Public Schools Place-Based Education Curricula
Name: Brian Albrecht and James Banks
Nomination: for the publication Cleveland in World War II
Pennsylvania
Name: Pennsylvania Lumber Museum and the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
Nomination: for the exhibit Challenges and Choices in Pennsylvania’s Forests
Name: Senator John Heinz History Center
Nomination: for the exhibit We Can Do It! WWII
Name: Cliveden
Nomination: for the program Liberty to Go to See
Tennessee
Name: Stones River National Battlefield
Nomination: for the program Hallowed Grounds: Sites of African American Memories
Name: Historic Travellers Rest Plantation & Museum
Nomination: for the exhibit A Past Uncovered: The Story of the Enslaved People of Travellers Rest
Name: Nashville Public Library
Nomination: for the program Civil Rights and a Civil Society
This nomination is also the recipient of a HIP (History in Progress) Award.
Texas
Name: Texas Archive of the Moving Image
Nomination: for the project A Journey to the Moon through Texas
Name: Nelda C. and H.J. Lutcher Stark Foundation
Nomination: for the exhibit A Death in the Family
Name: Bullock Texas State History Museum
Nomination: for the Texas Story Project
Name: Bullock Texas State History Museum
Nomination: for the exhibit Life and Death on the Border 1910-1920
Utah
Name: LDS Church Historic Sites Division
Nomination: for the Priesthood Restoration Historic Site
Virginia
Name: Birthplace of Country Music Museum
Nomination: for the Birthplace of Country Music Museum permanent exhibits
Washington
Name: Museum of History & Industry, Jazmyn Scott, and Aaron Walker-Loud
Nomination: for the exhibit The Legacy of Seattle Hip-Hop
Name: Washington State Historical Society
Nomination: for the publication COLUMBIA: The Magazine of Northwest History
Wisconsin
Name: Public and Policy History Major, University of Wisconsin – La Crosse; Downtown Main Street, Inc.; Special Collections, Murphy Library, University of Wisconsin – La Crosse; La Crosse Public Library Archives; and the Heritage Preservation Commission, the City of La Crosse
Nomination: for the project Hear, Here: Voices of Downtown La Crosse
Wyoming
Name: Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation
Nomination: for the program Saving WWII History: Preserving an Original Structure from an American Concentration Camp