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2022 AWARD WINNERS

FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT AWARD

Joseph P. "Pat" Harahan

Senior Historian, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, U.S. Department of Defense, retired

The Society is pleased to bestow the 2022 Franklin Delano Roosevelt Award, our most prestigious service award which recognizes outstanding contributions to the study the history of the federal government, to Joseph P. Harahan.

Harahan retired in 2010 after 35 years of federal service, serving from 1998 to 2010 as Senior Historian at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), and from 1990 to 1998 as Senior Historian at the Department of Defense On-Site Inspection Agency, special assistant to the Historian of the Air Force, and staff historian at the Air Force's Strategic Air Command. Harahan's DTRA histories and writings about inspection regimes for the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) and Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaties, as well his 2015 book on Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction, are methodical and intensely-researched narratives of complex bilateral and multilateral arms control regimes. They are essential for historians working on the topics of nuclear arms control, non-proliferation, threat reduction, and nuclear policy. They are also indispensable to any policymaker seeking to replicate the successes—and avoid the pitfalls—of the inspection regimes associated with these landmark Cold War agreements.



ROGER TRASK AWARD

eDWARD c. kEEFER

The Society is pleased to award the 2022 Trask Award to Edward C. Keefer in recognition of his distinguished career in federal history and decades of service to the profession. A longtime member of SHFG, Keefer has worked tirelessly to document the history of U.S. foreign relations and national security policy, both at the Department of State and in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Along the way, he has mentored generations of historians and imparted to them his passion for doing historical work in the public interest. 


Maryellen Trautman Award

      Thomas Faith


The Society is pleased to recognize Thomas Faith with the 2022 Trautman award for distinguished service to the Society.

Tom served as editor of The Federalist newsletter from 2016 until 2022, when he oversaw the transition of the newsletter’s editing and publishing process to a committee workflow. Prior to volunteering for this position, Tom served SHFG as editor of Explorations in Federal History from 2014 through 2016. He has also been a member of the Awards Committee since 2019.

SHFG MEMBER AWARD

     Dr. Jeffrey Stine, Green Persuasion: Advertising, Voluntarism, and America's Public Lands

The SHFG Member Award committee is pleased to recognize Dr. Jeffrey Stine and his Smithsonian publication Green Persuasion: Advertising, Voluntarism, and America’s Public Lands for the 2022 award. Starting with the early government advertising campaigns during the Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt presidential administrations, and jumping off from familiar Department of Interior characters from the mid-20th century, like Smokey the Bear and Woodsy Owl, Stine makes extensive use of government records and material culture artifacts to describe the historical context of the relationship between the non-profit Advertising Council and the federal government.  Particularly focusing on the Department of Interior’s “Take Pride” campaign beginning in the 1980s, Green Persuasion also analyzes intersections of civic engagement with public lands, the evolving politics of conservation and environmentalism, and different approaches to professionalization within the Department of the Interior, showing the complex array of ideas and decisions behind familiar public-facing government marketing campaigns.

Prize for ARTICLE Or Essay

Ian Michael Spurgeon, "Lost but Not Forgotten: The Search for the Missing of the Hürtgen Forest," Army History

This year’s winner of SHFG’s Article Prize is Ian Spurgeon for “Lost But Not Forgotten: The Search for the Missing of the Hürtgen Forest,” published in Army History (Summer 2021). 

This article outlines the process by which the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) analyzes, investigates and accounts for fallen United States soldiers. It describes how this methodology was applied to the recovery efforts in the Hürtgen Forest and how this project fits into the larger history of the agency. The article also makes use of and explains Graves Registration records and other underutilized primary sources.  

 Dr. Spurgeon has been a historian with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency since 2010. Currently, he specializes in resolving cases of American soldiers lost during ground combat in Germany. He received a BA and MA from Kansas State University and his Ph.D. in history from the University of Southern Mississippi.

SHFG BOOK AWARD

Charles Halvorson, Valuing Clean Air: The EPA and the Economics of Environmental Protection

This year’s winner of the Society’s Book Prize is Valuing Clean Air: The EPA and the Economics of Environmental Protection by Charles Halvorson.

Halvorson’s book Valuing Clean Air presents a well-researched and in-depth analysis of the history of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The book examines the passage of the Clean Air Act, and how the federal government attempted to enforce the legislation and protect the environment. In writing the book, Halvorson used extensive archival sources from the EPA, original interviews with people involved in the events, and other primary source material. 

Halvorson has a B.A. in History from Lewis & Clark College and a PhD in History from Columbia University. He was a Visiting Assistant Professor at Wesleyan University for two years before becoming a Senior Strategist at the consulting firm Gemic in 2019.


EXCELLENCE IN NEW MEDIA AWARD

National Park Service, Harper's Ferry Center's Dressing the Part:
A Portfolio of Women's History in the National Park Service

The New Media Award Committee has selected the National Park Service, Harpers Ferry Center’s “Dressing the Part: A Portfolio of Women’s History in the National Park Service” as its 2022 award recipient. “Dressing the Part” tells the history of women’s contributions to National Park Service through the lens of the uniforms they wore over time. It re-writes the history of women in the NPS, challenging the previous history of the NPS uniform and the roles of women employees, including many who didn’t wear uniforms. It also restores the place of many previously “unseen” or “forgotten” women, introducing the public to their characters, struggles, and accomplishments within historical contexts. The Portfolio launched in April 2021 as a collection of 6 landing pages, 25 articles, a photo gallery with over 300 images, 59 cartes-de-visit of individual NPS women, a fun and games section of downloadable material including three quizzes, 11 coloring pages, bookmarks, and a poster, and a reading list for books by and about NPS women. Conceived as a series of web pages and associated articles, it can be expanded in almost unlimited ways. The project highlights the work of federal history offices, demonstrates innovative use of federal records, and has broad potential uses for the public.

Historic Preservation and Exhibitions

Thomas Edison National Historical Park, "Mina Mondays"

Mina Mondays” is the 2022 recipient of the SHFG award for Historic Preservation and Exhibitions. Thomas Edison National Historical Park launched a social media campaign engaging visitors while increasing accessibility of public programming via weekly video segments. Using Mina Edison’s historic kitchen at Glenmont, “Mina Mondays” aired via social media in a bi-monthly series in which the museum curator featured one of thousands of Mina’s recipes. The cooking demonstrations discussed the history of the recipe while contextualizing the role of domestic work in men’s public successes. Their fresh, participatory approach asked viewers to try the recipes themselves, report on their experiences, and contribute to new adaptations of Mina Edison’s culinary repertoire. The programming has since expanded to include other artifacts in Glenmont’s collection.

Mina Mondays is a living history demonstration adapted for a twenty-first century audience. With the popularity of cooking shows, the programming taps into a whole new audience of cooking enthusiasts and makes real, tangential connections with history by creating participatory experiences. In attending primarily to a figure largely hidden from history, Mina Edison, and asking viewers to feel their way into her daily life, the National Park Service entry is exemplary public history.

           

Society for History in the Federal Government 
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Ben Franklin Station, Washington, DC 20044

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