Sept/Oct 2024 (Volume 16, Issue 5)

 

By Michael Swanger

 

On behalf of Iowa History Journal, congratulations to the winners of this year’s Excellence in Iowa History Awards presented by the State Historical Society of Iowa Board of Trustees. The winners were recognized at a ceremony held on June 14th at the State Historical Society Museum in Des Moines. The event honored individuals, organizations and communities that made outstanding contributions to the field of Iowa history in 2023. 

 

Among the award winners included Don Doxsie of Davenport, whose two-part series for Iowa History Journal, “Behind Barbed Wire: A Series About Iowa’s POW Camps,” won the George Mills & Louise Noun Popular History Award. The award recognizes the most significant popular history article on an Iowa history topic published during the previous calendar year. Doxsie, who also won the award in 2023, is a retired sports editor and reporter for the Quad-City Times and has been a longtime contributor to Iowa History Journal. His series was published in the September/October and November/December 2023 issues of Iowa History Journal. 

 

Timothy Walch, the author of Iowa History Journal’s two-part series, “Grenville Dodge: Architect of the Iron Road and Man of Intrigue,” which was published in the March/April and May/June 2023 issues of Iowa History Journal, earned a Certificate of Recognition in the Mills-Noun category for his work. Walch, another longtime contributor to Iowa History Journal, is a volunteer at the State Historical Society of Iowa and the author of many books and articles on U.S. history. Walch also won the esteemed William J. Petersen & Edgar Harlan Lifetime Achievement Award.

 

Other winners of this year’s Excellence in Iowa History Awards included Pamela Riney-Kehrberg of Ames for her book “When a Dream Dies: Agriculture, Iowa, and the Farm Crisis of the 1980s” (Dorothy Schwieder Excellence in Research Award); author Jeff Bremer for his book, “A New History of Iowa” (Benjamin F. Shambaugh Book Award); Karen M. Kedrowski for her article in The Annals of Iowa, “It’s My Greatest Desire Before I Die to be in the Iowa Constitution: Iowa and the Equal Rights Amendment” (Mildred Thorne & Charles Aldrich Scholarly History Award); Woodland Cemetery 175th Anniversary Project (Loren Horton Community History Award); and the City of Elkader for the Elkader Keystone Bridge Project (Excellence in Archaeology and Historic Preservation Award). 

 

For a complete list of recipients of this year’s awards, visit history.iowa.gov/history. 

 

Copies of each Iowa History Journal series written by Doxsie and Walch are available at iowahistoryjournal.com.

 

Speaking of back issues, Iowa History Journal is holding its annual sale of its collectible back issues during September and October. All back issues are 50 percent off in our online store. See the full page ad on the back of this issue for details. 

 

 

TO READ MORE FASCINATING STORIES ABOUT IOWA HISTORY, subscribe to Iowa History Journal. You can also purchase back issues at the store.