Award Recipients: 2026 | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | Nomination Forms
Lifetime Achievement Award
Carl Miller
Diamond Award
Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, Central Arkansas Library System
University of Arkansas at Monticello
John William Graves Book Award
Scott W. Stern
There Is a Deep Brooding in Arkansas: The Rape Trials that Sustained Jim Crow–and the People who Fought It, from Thurgood Marshall to Maya Angelou
(Yale University Press)
J. G. Ragsdale Book Award
Buckley T. Foster
So Great Was the Slaughter: Market Hunters, Sportsmen, and Wildlife Conservation in Arkansas
(University of Alabama Press)
James H. Atkinson Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Arkansas History
Sharon Purtle, Wonderview High School, Hattieville, AR
Lucille Westbrook Award
Alex McEachern
“The Collapse of the Cotton States League: Segregation and the Final Years of Minor League Baseball in South Arkansas”
Violet B. Gingles Award
Ani-ya Beasley
“Thomas Bass: Arkansas Reconstruction Politician”
Susannah DeBlack Award
Carlotta Walls LaNier
Carlotta’s Special Dress: How a Walk to School Changed Civil Rights History
(Little, Brown and Company)
James L. Foster and Billy W. Beason Award
Kaylee Cook
“Big Jesus: Christian Tourism and Far-Right Influence in the Arkansas Ozarks”
Susie Pryor Award in Arkansas Women’s History
Rebecca J. Becker
“Beyond the Classroom Walls: Minnie Belle Collier and the Modernization of Rural Arkansas Education, 1918-1938”
Walter L. Brown County and Local Journal Awards
Best County or Local Journal
Clark County Historical Journal
Clark County Historical Association
Honorable Mention
The Journal
Fort Smith Historical Society
Best Use of Graphics
Historical Bulletin
Grand Prairie Historical Society
Best Article
Dan Durning
“The 1866 Murders of Dr. A. W. Webb and His Young Son Moss: A Story with a Surprise Ending”
Pulaski County Historical Review
Pulaski County Historical Society
Best Biography, Autobiography, or Memoir
Maylon Rice
“The Sketches of Helen Finger Leflar, Capturing Fond Memories of Family and Fayetteville”
Flashback
Washington County Historical Society
Best Business History
Clint L. Harris and Mary Cooper Miller
“Arkansas Aircraft, Douglas, McDonnel Douglas, and Boeing”
The Izard County Historian
Izard County Historical and Genealogical Society
Best Family History
Billy Higgins
“The Darby Family Story: Percy & Nellie”
The Journal
Fort Smith Historical Society
Best Church History
Joe May
“A History of Churches of Christ in the Arkadelphia Area”
Clark County Historical Journal
Clark County Historical Association
Best School History
Terry S. Reynolds
“The Black Schools of Parkers Chapel”
Tracks and Traces
Union County Genealogical Society
Best Community History
Wendy Richter
“Hot Springs Trade Tokens: The Spa City’s Coupons of Yesteryear”
The Record
Garland County Historical Society
Best Edited Document
JCHS Staff
“April 12, 1945–Tornado: Donated Documentation”
The Journal
Johnson County Historical Society
Best Newsletter
The Backtracker
Northwest Arkansas Genealogical Society