SHFG MEMBER AWARD

This year’s member award recipient is Jennifer Ross-Nazzal for her chapter “Apollo and the Clear Lake Community” from NASA and the American South, edited by Ryan C. Odom and Stephen Waring. The chapter discusses the development of the Clear Lake suburb of Houston, which became the home to Project Apollo and NASA employees in the 1960s. Though there had been an existing community, Project Apollo caused Clear Lake to grow exponentially in a short period. Ross-Nazzal examines the experiences of residents and the social and cultural character of this community. In examining the impact of largescale federal projects on creating and shaping local community, this chapter contributes to the historiography of both Project Apollo and the history of the federal government. Such large influxes of population in response to new federal projects are not historically uncommon, especially during the Cold War. Ross-Nazzal highlights various ways Project Apollo created a unique community, such as the media attention given to celebrity astronauts, but her work also provides a model to research and study how other federally-driven communities developed in similar or different ways. Ross-Nazzal draws extensively on oral histories that are part of her larger body of work as a federal government historian. She uses the oral histories to illuminate the character of the community and what it was like to live there during this crucial period of Project Apollo. She also draws on a range of other archives and sources. These sources help her verify and balance the limits and biases of oral history sources. Ross-Nazzal’s very readable chapter provides a rich portrait of Clear Lake and its ties to Project Apollo while leaving readers wanting to learn more about the arts, culture, and community that developed there.

BOOK AWARD

Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents That Forged the Republic by Lindsay M. Chervinsky

PRIZE FOR ARTICLE OR ESSAY

Natalie Shibley's innovative article “Policing Venereal Disease at Fort Huachuca, 1941–1945" provides a window onto an important and understudied area of U.S. history, contributing to our understanding of the history of African Americans in World War II and of the U.S. Army. It gives valuable insight into how Fort Huachuca operated and the experience of Black soldiers on the border, far from combat. The article also reveals that the project of surveilling soldiers and rule-making, informed by ideas of race and gender, emerged out of a negotiation between Army officials in Washington, local officers, medical professionals, people who lived near the installation, journalists, and the soldiers themselves. In addition, the work makes use of underutilized government sources and military newspapers to make its argument.

EXCELLENCE IN NEW MEDIA AWARD

This year's award winner is USS Shenandoah: The United States Navy's First Rigid Airship by the Smithsonian Institution. The project is notable not just for its creative use of the StoryMaps platform and its integration with myriad Smithsonian resources on topics relating to the airship, but also for its demonstrated commitment to and successful creation of an additional version that meets WCAG AA standards.