Retired Georgia Historical Society Awards

GHS Distinguished Fellow Program

The Georgia Historical Society Distinguished Fellow Program was an honorary membership bestowed for exceptional achievement in the field of scholarly historical research and in recognition of signal service to the Georgia Historical Society. Selection as a Distinguished Fellow was based entirely on merit and is, therefore, the highest level of membership offered by the Georgia Historical Society.

Recipients

2015: Gary W. Gallagher

Gary W. Gallagher is the John L. Nau III Professor in the History of the American Civil War at the University of Virginia. A native of Los Angeles, California, he received his B.A. from Adams State College of Colorado (1972) and his M.A. (1977) and Ph.D. (1982) from the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author or editor of more than thirty books, including The Confederate War (Harvard University Press, 1997), Lee and His Generals in War and Memory (Louisiana State University Press, 1998), Causes Won, Lost, and Forgotten: How Hollywood and Popular Art Shape What We Know About the Civil War (University of North Carolina Press, 2008), The Union War (Harvard University Press, 2011), Becoming Confederates: Paths to a New National Loyalty (University of Georgia Press, 2013), and Lens of War: Exploring Iconic Photographs of the Civil War (University of Georgia Press, 2015). He appeared regularly on the Arts and Entertainment Network’s series “Civil War Journal” as well as participating in more than three dozen other television projects in the field. Professor Gallagher delivered the 2011 Lamar Lectures at Mercer University, and in 2001-2002 he was the Times-Mirror Foundation Distinguished Fellow at the Henry E. Huntington Library in San Marino, California. He is also the recipient of the Cavaliers’ Distinguished Teaching Professorship for 2010-2012 (the highest teaching award conveyed by the University of Virginia) and the Philip Merrill Award for Outstanding Contributions to Liberal Arts Education from the American Council of Trustees and Alumni in 2013. Active in the field of historic preservation, he was president from 1987 to mid-1994 of the Association for the Preservation of Civil War Sites (an organization with a membership of more than 12,500 representing all 50 states). He also served as a member of the Board of the Civil War Trust and has given testimony about preservation before Congressional committees on several occasions.

2014: Edward L. Ayers

Dr. Edward L. Ayers is the president of the University of Richmond and the author of eleven books on American history. A Kingsport, Tennessee, native, he earned a B. A. in history at the University of Tennessee, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in history at Yale University. He received the 2013 National Medal for the Humanities; the Bancroft Prize for distinguished writing in American History; the Beveridge Prize for the best book in English on the history of the Americas since 1492; and has been a finalist for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Dr. Ayers was a founder of the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities and the Virginia Center for Digital History. He was recently elected president of the Organization of American Historians and is a co-host of the nationally syndicated public radio program “BackStory with The American History Guys.” He is one of the most distinguished historians and educators in the nation.

Merton Coulter Award

The Coulter Award was established in 1973 in honor of E. Merton Coulter, editor of the Quarterly from 1924 to 1973.

Recipients (partial list):

2016: Dr. Steven Hahn, “‘The Pocahontas of Georgia’: Mary Musgrove in the American Literary Imagination,” Spring/Summer 2015

2015: Kevin Kokomoor, “‘Burning and Destroying All Before Them’: Creeks and Seminoles on Georgia’s Revolutionary Frontier,” Winter 2014

2014: Lester Stephens, “John Ruggles Cotting and the First State Geological Survey of Georgia,” Summer 2013.

2013: Michael Bernath, “Independent in Everything, Neutral in Nothing: Joseph Addison Turner, The Countryman, and the Cultivation of Confederate Nationalism,” Spring 2012.

2012: Brent M. S. Campney, “A State of Violent Contrasts: Lynching and the Competing Visions of White Supremacy in Georgia, 1949,” Summer 2011

2011: Julie Anne Sweet, “That Cursed Evil Rum: The Trustee’s Prohibition Policy,” Spring 2010

2010: Dr. Glenn McNair, “Slave Women, Capital Crime, and Criminal Justice in Georgia,” Summer 2009

2009: Monica Hunt, “Organized Labor Along Savannah’s Waterfront: Mutual Cooperation among Black and White Longshoremen, 1865-1894,” Summer 2008

2008: James J. Lorence, “The Workers of Chicopee: Progressive Paternalism and the Culture of Accommodation in a Modern Mill Village,” Fall 2007

2007: Virginia Steele Wood, “The Georgia Navy’s Dramatic Victory of April 19, 1776,” Summer 2006

2006: Andrew Moore, “Practicing What We Preach: White Catholics and the Civil Rights Movement in Atlanta,” Fall 2005

2005: Benjamin Marsh, “Women and the American Revolution in Georgia,” Summer 2004

2004: Catherine Badura, “The ‘Seemingly Contradictory’ Life and Legacy of Georgia Novelist Corra Harris,”
Summer 2003

2003: Andrew K. Frank, “The Rise and Fall of William McIntosh: Authority and Identity on the Early American Frontier,” Spring 2002

2002: David A. Nichols, “Land, Republicanism, and Indians: Power and Policy in Early National Georgia, 1780-1825,” Summer 2001

2001: Gregory C. Lisby, “‘Trying to Define What May Be Indefinable’: The Georgia Literature Commission, 1953-1973,” Spring 2000

2000: Roger W. Lotchin and David R. Long, “World War II and the Transformation of Southern Urban Society: A Reconsideration,” Spring 1999

1999: Lee W. Formwalt, “Moving in ‘That Strange Land of Shadows’: African-American Mobility and Persistence in Post-Civil War Southwest Georgia,” Fall 1998

William Bacon Stevens Award

The Stevens Award was given for the best article by a student to appear in the Georgia Historical Quarterly in a two-year period. The award was established in 1980 and honors William Bacon Stevens, one of Georgia’s premier historians and a founder of GHS.

Previous Winners (partial list):

2010-2011: Christopher A. Huff, “Radicals Between the Hedges: The Origins of the New Left at the University of Georgia and the 1968 Sit-In,” Summer 2010

2007-2008: David Kenneth Pye, “Complex Relations: An African-American Lawyer Navigates Jim Crow Atlanta,” Winter 2007

2005-2006: Daniel Bronstein, “La Cubana City: A Cuban Cigar Manufacturing Community near Thomasville, Georgia during the 1890s,” Fall 2006

2003-2004: Codrina Cozma, “John Martin Bolzius and the Early Christian Opposition to Slavery in Georgia,” Winter 2004

Lilla M. Hawes Award

The Hawes Award, established in 1993, was given for the best book in Georgia county or local history published during the previous year. The award was named in honor of Lilla M. Hawes, GHS Director from 1948 to 1976.

Previous Winners:

2016: Southern Tufts: The Regional Origins and National Craze for Chenille Fashion, by Ashley Callahan, published by University of Georgia Press

2015: Slavery and Freedom in Savannah, Leslie M. Harris & Daina Ramey Berry, eds., published by University of Georgia Press

2013: Atlanta’s Oakland Cemetery: An Illustrated History and Guide by Ren Davis and Helen Davis, published by the University of Georgia Press

2012: Atlanta’s Stone Mountain: A Multicultural History by Paul Hudson and Lora Mirza, published by The History Press

2011: The House on Diamond Hill, by Tiya Miles, published by University of North Carolina Press

2009-2010: The Story of Georgia’s Boundaries: A Meeting of History and Geography by William J. Morton, published by Georgia History Press

2008: Never for Want of Powder:The Confederate Powder Works in Augusta, GA, by C. L. Bragg, Charles D. Ross, Gordon A. Baker, Stephanie A. T. Jacobe, and Theodore P. Savas, published by University of South Carolina Press

2007: The Genesis of Grady County, by Gwendolyn Brock Waldorf, published by the Grady County Historical Society

2006: Berry College: A History, by Ouida Dickey and Doyle Mathis, published by University of Georgia Press

2005: Gardens and Historic Plants of the Antebellum South, by James Cothran, published by University of South Carolina Press

2004: Freedom, by Michael Thurmond, published by Longstreet Press

2003: The Brightest Arm of the Savannah: The Augusta Canal, 1845-2000, by Edward J. Cashin

2002: Oracle of the Ages: Reflections on the Curious Life of Fortune Teller Mayhaley Lancaster, by Dot Moore

2000: From Beautiful Zion to Redbird Creek: A History of Bryan County, Georgia, by Buddy Sullivan

1999: A Power for Good: The History of Trinity Parish, Columbus, Georgia, by Lynn Willoughby

1998: Pilgrims Through the Years: A Bicentennial History of the First Baptist Church, Savannah, Georgia, by George H. Shriver

Roger K. Warlick Local History Achievement Awards

The Roger K. Warlick Local History Achievement Awards were given by the Georgia Historical Society until 2018 to recognize excellence in the preservation and presentation of local history by members of the GHS Affiliate Chapter program. Previous winners of this award are listed below:

Previous Winners

2018

Tattnall County Archives – 2018 – Special Projects

2017

Sumter Historic Trust – 2017 – Programs

Historic Rural Churches of Georgia – 2017 – Special Projects

Woodward Academy/GMA Archives – 2017 – Exhibits

2016

Historic Oakland Foundation, Inc. – 2016 – Programs

The Columbus Museum – 2016 – Exhibits

Massie Heritage Center – 2016 – Media

2015

Thronateeska Heritage Foundation, Inc. – 2015 – Archival Excellence

Bulloch County Historical Society – 2015 – Exhibits

Augusta Canal National Heritage Area, Augusta Civil War Roundtable, Augusta Museum of History, Augusta-Richmond County Historical Society, Center for the Study of Georgia History at Regents University, Historic Augusta, Inc. & Boyhood Home of President Woodrow Wilson, Lucy Craft Laney Museum of Black History, and Morris Museum of Art – 2015 – Programs