DESCRIPTION AND GUIDELINES FOR THE 2025 PRIZE
Special Collections and Archives at the Denver Public Library awards the Caroline Bancroft History Prize annually. According to the terms of the will of the late Caroline 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 2025 prize will be for $1,000. Honor books may be named but will not receive a monetary prize.
The competition is open to all United States and foreign citizens, except those persons directly affiliated with Denver Public Library as current employees, volunteers, or Library Commission members. The winner of the 2025 prize will be announced in December 2025.
Only books published in 2024 will be considered for the 2025 prize. Books published in 2025 will be considered for the 2026 prize. To be accepted into the competition, books must include footnotes or endnotes, a bibliography, and an index.
"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 Caroline Bancroft History Prize committee - which is comprised of Denver Public Library employees - will consider books that make a 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 high literary quality. The Caroline Bancroft History Prize committee will select the winning book/author.
Publishers and authors can submit entries to:
The Caroline Bancroft Prize
Special Collections and Archives,
Denver Public Library
10 West Fourteenth Avenue Parkway
Denver, CO 80204
preferably as soon as they are published, but no later than May 1, 2025. Denver Public Library requests two copies of each book along with a letter stating they are for the Caroline Bancroft Prize competition so the library can send an acknowledgment. All submitted copies will become the property of Denver Public Library.
THE 2024 CAROLINE BANCROFT HISTORY PRIZE WINNER
The First Migrants: How Black Homesteaders' Quest for Land and Freedom Heralded America's Great Migration by Richard Edwards and Jacob K. Friefeld. University of Nebraska Press
2024 CAROLINE BANCROFT HISTORY PRIZE HONOR BOOK
Last Paper Standing: A Century of Competition between the Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News by Ken J. Ward. University Press of Colorado
TITLES ACCEPTED IN THE 2024 COMPETITION
- American Journey: On the Road with Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and John Burroughs by Wes Davis. W. W. Norton & Company
- The Art and Life of Merritt Dana Houghton in the Northern Rockies, 1878-1919 by Michael A. Amundson. University of Wyoming Press
- Back from the Collapse: American Prairie and the Restoration of Great Plains Wildlife by Curtis H. Freese. University of Nebraska Press
- Bright Lights in the Desert: The Latter-Day Saints of Las Vegas by Fred E. Woods. University of Nevada Press
- Continental Reckoning: The American West in the Age of Expansion by Elliott West. University of Nebraska Press
- Diné dóó Gáamalii: Navajo Latter-day Saint Experiences in the Twentieth Century by Farina King. University Press of Kansas
- Disneyland on the Mountain: Walt, the Environmentalists, and the Ski Resort that Never Was by Greg Glasgow and Kathryn Mayer. Rowman & Littlefield
- The First Migrants: How Black Homesteaders' Quest for Land and Freedom Heralded America's Great Migration by Richard Edwards and Jacob K. Friefeld. University of Nebraska Press
- Heaven's Harsh Tableland: A New History of the Llano Estacado by Paul H. Carlson. Texas A&M University Press
- The Incorrigibles: Eugenics and Sterilization in the Kansas Industrial School for Girls by Ry Mercattilio-McCracken. University of Nebraska Press
- Indigenous Missourians: Ancient Societies to the Present by Greg Olson. University of Missouri Press
- Last Paper Standing: A Century of Competition between the Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News by Ken J. Ward. University Press of Colorado
- A New History of Iowa by Jeff Bremer. University Press of Kansas
- Octopus's Garden: How Railroads and Citrus Transformed Southern California by Benjamin T. Jenkins. University Press of Kansas
- An Open Secret: The Story of Deadwood's Most Notorious Bordellos by Chris Enss and Deadwood History, Inc. TwoDot
- A People's History of SFO: The Making of the Bay Area and an Airport by Eric Porter. University of California Press
- Remembering Ludlow but Forgetting the Columbine: The 1927-1928 Colorado Coal Strike by Leigh Campbell-Hale. University Press of Colorado
- Saving Point Reyes: How an Epic Conservation Victory Became a Tipping Point for Environmental Policy Action by Gerald Felix Warburg. University Press of Kansas
- Settler Cannabis: From Gold Rush to Green Rush in Indigenous Northern California by Kaitlin Reed. University of Washington Press
- Slavery in Zion: A Documentary and Genealogical History of Black Lives and Black Servitude in Utah Territory, 1847-1862 by Amy Tanner Thiriot. University of Utah Press
- That Which Roots Us: Environmental Issues in the Pacific Northwest and Beyond by Marion Dresner. University of Nevada Press
- True West: Myth and Mending on the Far Side of America by Betsy Gaines Quammen. Torrey House Press
- Unrepentant Dakota Woman: Angelique Renville and the Struggle for Indigenous Identity, 1845-1876 by Linda M. Clemmons. South Dakota Historical Society Press
- Western Water A to Z: The History, Nature, and Culture of a Vanishing Resource by Robert R. Crifasi. University Press of Colorado