2025 Award Winners | 2024 Award Winners | 2023 Award Winners | Nomination Forms

Lifetime Achievement Award

Don C. Bragg – for his enduring contributions to Arkansas history, archeology, and ecology
Matthew Rooney (Arkansas Archeological Survey) presenting Don C. Bragg
    Lifetime Achievement Award.
Jim Rees (Arkansas Archeological Society) accepting Don C. Bragg Lifetime
    Achievement Award on behalf of the family.

Diamond Award

Celia Storey‘s “Old News” column in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Award of Merit

Washington County Historical Association – for its “This Place Matters” campaign to raise awareness of historic properties
Patsy Watkins, Editor accepting award

J. G. Ragsdale Book Award

John A. Kirk – Winthrop Rockefeller:  From New Yorker to Arkansawyer, 1912-1956
University of Arkansas Press – publisher of this year’s Ragsdale Book Award

John William Graves Book Award

Edited by Michael Pierce and Calvin White Jr. – for best book-length historical study of the history of African Americans or race in Arkansas Race, Labor, and Violence in the Delta:  Essays to Mark the Centennial of the Elaine Massacre
University of Arkansas Press – publisher of this year’s Graves Book Award

J. H. Atkinson Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Arkansas History

Meridith Armstrong – for excellence in the teaching of Arkansas History in Goza Middle School, Arkadelphia  

NEARA (Northeast Arkansas Regional Archives)

Joseph Hutchison – for his outstanding contribution to Arkansas history with his essay “Jealousy, Gangs, and Contract Killing: A Revealing Case in the Arkansas Ozarks”

Lucille Westbrook Award

Dr. John A. Kirk and co-authors – for his outstanding contribution to local Arkansas history in his essay “Racial Discrimination in Jury Selection:  The Arkansas Cases of the Bone Brothers, 1938-1940”
Co-Authors – Armando Arellano, Mikaela Bailey, Charles Bonet, Scott T. Bradshaw, Mary Alice Chambers, Jackelyn R. Cordova-Romano, Jerry Griffin, Jayla Henderson, Jacob Hicks, Caitlin Robertson, Koriatorshia Robinson, Margaret Stone, and Isaac Wolter

Violet B. Gingles Award

Dan Durning – for his outstanding contribution to Arkansas history in his essay “First-and Second-Generation Ethnic Germans on the Little Rock City Council, 1866-1915”

James L. Foster & Billy W. Beason Award

Michael Anthany – for his outstanding contribution to Arkansas history with his dissertation “Otherwise, You Will Have to Suffer the Consequences:  The Racial Cleansing of Catcher, Arkansas” 
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville

Susie Pryor Award in Arkansas Women’s History

Hannah Winters – “Safety in the South: Conceptualizing Lesbian Spaces in Arkansas, 1981-1997”

Walter L. Brown Awards

Pulaski County Historical Review
Pulaski County Historical Society, Bob Razer, Editor

Honorable Mention for next Best County or Local Journal

Flashback
Washington County Historical Society, Patsy Watkins, Editor

Best Use of Graphics

The Journal
Johnson County Historical Society, Debbie Overbey, Editor
Walter L. Brown Award for Best Article

Guy Lancaster, “Brush Fires: A Chronicle of Murder, Arson, and General Mayhem on Brushy Island in Northern Pulaski County” 
Pulaski County Historical Review, Pulaski County Historical Society
Bob Razer accepting award for Guy Lancaster

Best Biography, Autobiography, or Memoir

Denele Campbell, “The ‘Otherness’ of Forrestina Bradley Campbell aka White River Red” 
Flashback, Washington County Historical Society
Patsy Watkins accepting award for Denele Campbell

Best Family History

Mary Cooper Miller, “The Bean Family: Their Influence on Early Arkansas History” 
The Independence County Chronicle, Independence County Historical Society

Best Church History

Mary Cooper Miller, “Other Church Denominations in Izard County History”
The Izard County Historian, Izard County Historical and Genealogical Society

Best Community History

J. B. Hogan, “Fayetteville:  Mecca for Writers”
Flashback, Washington County Historical Society
Patsy Watkins accepting award for J. B. Hogan

Best School History

Sue Robison, “Parker Elementary School: A Century of Service”
The Journal, Fort Smith Historical Society

Best Business History

Wendell Stratton, “Stratton Seed Company: 75 Years of Service to Agriculture”
Historical Bulletin, Grand Prairie Historical Society

Best Edited Document

Mark K. Christ, “‘There was a Rebel Spy hung here on Friday’: Little Rock Letters from Harvey R. Frazier, Thirteenth Illinois Cavalry”
Pulaski County Historical Review, Pulaski County Historical Society

Best Newsletter

News from the Prairie 
Grand Prairie Historical Society, Glen Mosenthin, Editor