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GHS Announces Annual Award Winners

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Savannah, GA – April 24, 2009.  The Georgia Historical Society announced the winners of its annual publication, affiliate, and service awards at the 2009 Annual Meeting of the Membership on April 16, 2009. GHS presents several annual and bi-annual awards each year to authors, students, and historical organizations throughout the state. This year’s awards honor the best writers and stewards of Georgia history.

The Malcolm Bell Jr. and Muriel Barrow Bell Award, established in 1992, is given for the best book in Georgia history published in the previous year. The award is named in honor of Malcolm Bell, Jr., and Muriel Barrow Bell in recognition of their contributions to the recording of Georgia's history. This year’s winner is Jacqueline Jones of the University of Texas for Saving Savannah: The City and The Civil War, published by Alfred A. Knopf.

The E. Merton Coulter Award is given for the best article to appear in the Georgia Historical Quarterly in the previous year. The Coulter Award was established in 1973 in honor of E. Merton Coulter, who edited the Quarterly for fifty years. This year’s winner is Monica Hunt for her article, "Organized Labor Along Savannah's Waterfront: Mutual Cooperation among Black and White Longshoremen, 1865-1894," published in the Summer 2008 issue.

The William Bacon Stevens Award is 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. This year’s winner is David Kenneth Pye a graduate student at the University of California, San Diego for his article, "Complex Relations: An African-American Lawyer Navigates Jim Crow Atlanta," published in the Winter 2007 issue.

Roger K. Warlick Local History Achievement Awards recognize outstanding achievement in the field of local history by Affiliate Chapters of the Georgia Historical Society. These awards were established in 1998 and were named in honor of Roger Warlick, president of the Society from 1990 to 1994. There are five possible award categories in addition to the Affiliate of the Year award. This year’s winners are:

Programs – Historic Augusta, Inc. for Walk with the Spirits

Media Project – Thomaston/Upson Archives and the Upson County Historical Society for “History Radio Spots”

Preservation Project – Historic Augusta, Inc. for the restoration of Union Baptist Church

Affiliate of the Year – Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute Library for continuing excellence in the preservation and promotion of Georgia and American history

Sarah Nichols Pinckney Volunteer Award recognizes individuals and groups who have selflessly contributed their time and resources to advance the mission of the Georgia Historical Society. It is named in honor of Sarah Pinckney, who for many years has given so generously of her time and resources to this organization, and is presented this year to the Savannah Jewish Archives – for providing access to information on Georgia’s first Jewish community to researchers across the nation.