The Archival History Award is awarded annually by the Archival History Section, an affinity group of the Society of American Archivists. The award encourages and rewards an article or other short piece of superior excellence in the field of archival history, irrespective of subject, time period, or national focus. Stand-alone chapters in edited essay collections or anthologies will be considered. The work must be published in English during the previous calendar year.
In 2020, it was decided that two awards would be made, one for scholars within the profession (practicing archivists, archival educators, retired archivists, students in archival programs), and one for scholars outside the profession (historians, political scientists, and others). There is a further requirement in that those in the category of archivists much be SAA members.
For 2022, awarded in 2023
Geoffrey Yeo (member category), “‘Let Us See What Is Meant by the Word Recorde’: Concepts of Record from the Middle Ages to the Early 20th Century,” Archivaria, no. 93 (Spring 2022): 6-41.
Roldán, María Cristina Betancur (non-member category), “Archival traditions in Latin America,” Archival Science 22 (2022):483–500.
For 2021, awarded in 2022
James Lowry and Riley Linebaugh, “The Archival Colour Line: Race, Records and Post-colonial Custody.” The Journal of Archives and Records Association 43, no.3 (Oct 2021): 284-303.
For 2020, awarded in 2021
Anthea Josias (member category), “Archives, records, and land restitution in South Africa.” In Archives, Recordkeeping, and Social Justice, edited by David A. Wallace et al., 73-88. New York: Routledge, 2020.
Derek O’Leary (non-member category), “Deborah Norris Logan and the Archival Threshold in the Antebellum U.S.” The New Americanist 1, no. 4 (Summer 2020): 29-58.
For 2019, awarded in 2020
Greg Weideman (member category), University at Albany, SUNY for “The Historical Hazards of Finding Aids” American Archivist 82, no. 2 (Fall/Winter 2019): 381-420.
Melanie Shell-Weiss (non-member category), “Good Intentions: Grappling with Legacies of Conflict and Distrust Surrounding a Native American Oral History Project One Generation Later” Oral History Review 46:1 (Winter/Spring 2019): 104-133.
For 2018, awarded in 2019
Heather Wolfe and Peter Stallybrass, “The Material Culture of Record-Keeping in Early Modern England,” in Corens, Liesbeth, Kate Peters, and Alexandra Walsham, eds. Archives and Information in the Early Modern World (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), chapter 7.
For 2017, awarded in 2018
Patricia Kennedy Grimsted, “Pan-European Displaced Archives in the Russian Federation: Still Prisoners of War on the 70th Anniversary of V-E Day”, in Displaced Archives, ed. James Lowry (New York: Routledge, 2017), 130-156.
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