Shortlists revealed for the Alice Davis Hitchcock Medallion and the Colvin Prize
The shortlists for two of the most important prizes in architectural history – the Alice Davis Hitchcock Medallion and the Colvin Prize – have been revealed today.
The Alice Davis Hitchcock Medallion is awarded to a monograph that makes an outstanding contribution to the study of architectural history – previous winners include Howard Colvin, Dorothy Stroud, John Summerson, Nikolaus Pevsner, Hermione Hobhouse and Jill Lever. The Colvin Prize, established in 2017, is awarded to an outstanding work of reference of value to the discipline irrespective of format.
The two shortlists for the awards this year, which can be found below, demonstrate a broad range of subjects and approaches to architectural history, ranging from a global atlas of queer spaces, forensic analysis of the urban and architectural fabric of Whitechapel, a fulsome biographical dictionary of early-modern architects in Britain, through to a compendious photographic recording of all the 437 Carnegie libraries that still remain in the UK, and much more.
The winners will be selected in the autumn and announced at the Society’s Annual Lecture and Awards Ceremony in December 2022.
The awards are overseen by the SAHGB to reward work that is innovative, ambitious and rigorous in tackling histories of the built environment as broadly conceived. The SAHGB’s awards programme, which also includes the ‘Hawksmoor’ Essay Medal, Heritage Research Award and Dissertation Prize, is open and inclusive wherever possible, celebrating diversity of approach and recognising work at all career levels.
Please contact the SAHGB at info@sahgb.org.uk for further information.
Alice Davis Hitchcock Medallion shortlist
Basile Baudez, Inessential Colors: Architecture on Paper in Early Modern Europe (Princeton University Press)
Manolo Guerci, London’s ‘Golden Mile’: The Great Houses of the Strand, 1550–1650 (Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art)
Jasmine Kilburn-Toppin, Crafting identities: Artisan culture in London, c. 1550-1640 (Manchester University Press)
Nathaniel Walker, Victorian Visions of Suburban Utopia: Abandoning Babylon (Oxford University Press)
Colvin Prize shortlist
Adam Nathaniel Furman + Joshua Mardell (eds.), Queer Spaces: An Atlas of LGBTQIA+ Places and Stories (RIBA Publishing)
Mark Girouard, A Biographical Dictionary of English Architecture, 1540–1640 (Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art)
Oriel Prizeman, The Carnegie Libraries of Britain: A Photographic Chronicle (Arts and Humanities Research Council)
Survey of London (Peter Guillery ed.), Whitechapel: Vols 54 + 55 (Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art/Yale University Press)
FURTHER INFORMATION
The Alice Davis Hitchcock Medallion
The Alice Davis Hitchcock Medallion – awarded since 1959 – is given annually to the author of a literary work that provides an outstanding contribution to the study of architectural history. The work must be by a British author (or authors), or deal with an aspect of the architectural history of the British Isles or the Commonwealth. The award is named after the mother of the American architectural historian Henry Russell-Hitchcock, and the medallion consists of a Wedgwood portrait of James ‘Athenian’ Stuart. It was presented to the SAHGB general meeting in 1959.
Judging panel: Professor Elizabeth McKellar (President of SAHGB + panel chair); Dr John Goodall (Architectural Editor, Country Life); Dr Conor Lucey (University College Dublin); Professor Wendy Pullan (University of Cambridge); Professor Lukasz Stanek (University of Manchester); Dr Diane Watters (University of Edinburgh/Historic Environment Scotland).
For further information, including criteria, eligibility and nomination form, please see the Awards page. For a list of previous winners, please contact the SAHGB at info@sahgb.org.uk
The Colvin Prize
The Colvin Prize is awarded annually to the author or authors of an outstanding work of reference that relates to the field of architectural history, broadly conceived. All modes of publication are eligible, including catalogues, gazetteers, digital databases and online resources. It is named in honour of Sir Howard Colvin, a former president of the Society, and one of the most eminent scholars in architectural history of the twentieth century. The prize was inaugurated in 2017; winners receive a commemorative medal designed by contemporary medallist Abigail Burt.
Judging panel: Professor Murray Fraser (Chair of SAHGB + panel chair); Professor Richard Brook (Manchester School of Architecture); Professor Louise Campbell (University of Warwick); Dr Valeria Carullo (Royal Institute of British Architects); Professor Simon Pepper (University of Liverpool); Professor Leslie Topp (Birkbeck, University of London)
For further information, including criteria, eligibility and nomination form, please see our Awards page. For a list of previous winners, please contact the SAHGB at info@sahgb.org.uk