Denver Public Library: Western History Genealogy: About

Caroline Bancroft History Prize

Description and Guidelines for the 2008 Prize

The Western History/Genealogy Department of the Denver Public Library awards the Carolyn Bancroft Prize annually. According to the terms of the will of the late Carolyn Bancroft, provision is made for an annual prize “to be awarded to the author of the best book on Colorado or Western American History published during the current year, to be known as the Caroline Bancroft History Prize.” The 2008 prize will be in the amount of $3,000. Honor books may be named but will not receive a monetary prize.

The competition is open to all persons, whether connected with the Denver Public Library or not and whether citizens of the United States or any other country. The winner of the 2008 prize will be announced in the fall of 2008.

Only books published in 2007 will be considered for the 2008 prize. Books published in 2008 will be considered for the 2009 prize.

“Colorado or Western American History” is defined geographically as being inclusive of the trans-Mississippi West from prehistoric times to the present. This includes all states west of the Mississippi River, Alaska, Hawaii, and the Canadian and Mexican borderlands.

In defining the term “best book,” the staff of the Western History/Genealogy Department will consider books that make significant contribution to historical knowledge, that present thorough and original research, that bring a new perspective to some well-known question, and that are of a high literary quality. The winning book/author will be selected by employees of the Western History/Genealogy Department.

Publishers and authors can submit entries to:
The Carolyn Bancroft Prize, Western History/Genealogy Department,
Denver Public Library
10 West Fourteenth Avenue Parkway
Denver, CO 80204
preferably as published, but not later than March 1, 2008. The Denver Public Library requests two copies of the book along with a letter that states that it is for the Carolyn Bancroft Prize competition so that the Library can send an acknowledgement. All submitted copies will become property of the Denver Public Library.

Questions regarding the process used by the Library for prize selection can be addressed to Jim Kroll, Manager of the Western History/Genealogy Department, jkroll@denverlibrary.org.

Caroline Bancroft History Prize Winners and Honors

2007	Norwegians on the Prairie: Ethnicity and the Development of the Country Town by Odd S. Lovoll
2006	Women of the Northern Plains: Gender and Settlement on the Homestead Frontier, 1870 – 1930 by Barbara Handy-Marchello
2005	Beasts of the Field: A Narrative History of California Farmworkers, 1769 – 1913 by Richard Steven Street
2004	One Vast Winter Count: The Native American West Before Lewis and Clark by Colin Calloway
2003	Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows by Will Bagley
2002	A River Running West: The Life of John Wesley Powell by Donald Worster
2001	Pioneer Photographers of the Far West: A Biographical Dictionary, 1840 – 1865 by Peter E. Palmquist and Thomas R. Kailbourn
2000	Jefferson and the Indians: The Tragic Fate of the First Americans by Anthony F.C. Wallace
1999	The Contested Plains: Indians, Goldseekers, and the Rush to Colorado by Elliott West
1998	Dust Bowl Migrants in the American Imagination by Charles J. Shindo
1997	Big Bluestem: Journey into the Tall Grass by Annick Smith
1996	Independent Spirits: Women Painters of the American West, 1890 – 1945 Edited by Patricia Trenton
1995	Antigua California: Mission and Colony of the Peninsular Frontier, 1697 – 1768 by Harry W. Crosby
1994	Trials and Triumphs: A Colorado Portrait of the Great Depression with FSA Photographs by Stephen J. Leonard
1993	The Spanish Frontier in North America by David J. Weber
1992	When Jesus Came, the Corn Mothers Went Away by Ramón A. Gutiérrez
1991	Thomas O. Larkin: A Life of Patriotism and Profit in Old California by Harlan Hague and David J. Langum
1990	Growing Up with the Country: Childhood on the Far Western Frontier by Elliot West
1990	A Story that Stands Like a Dam: Glen Canyon and the Struggle for the Soul of the West by Russell Martin
1989	The Protestant Clergy in the Great Plains and Mountain West, 1865 – 1915 by Ferenc Morton Szasz
1988	The Mythic West in Twentieth-Century America by Robert G. Athearn