For eighty years, the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) has presented Leadership in History Awards to establish and encourage standards of excellence in the collection, preservation, and interpretation of state and local history in order to make the past more meaningful to all people.

Today, AASLH announces the Awards of Excellence winners for this year. The 2025 Albert B. Corey Award winner and History in Progress winners were previously announced.

Awards of Excellence
The Award of Excellence is presented to recognize excellence for projects (including civic engagement, special projects, educational programs, exhibits, publications, etc.), and individual lifetime achievement. This is the main award in the Leadership in History Awards program.

Arizona
Friends of the Tubac Presidio and Museum, Inc. for The World on Your Table

California
Connie Young Yu for decades of preserving and sharing Chinese American history in California

Japanese American Citizens League for Historic Japanese American Cemetery Rededication and Revitalization

SFO Museum/SFO International Airport for Rosie the Riveter: Womanpower in Wartime

Connecticut
Gunn Memorial Library and Museum for Letters Home: The Experiences of Helen Wersebe, World War II Army Nurse

Housatonic Museum of Art and Interpreting Sports for The Making of an Icon: Walter Iooss and Sports Photography

Mystic Seaport Museum for Mainsheet: A Journal of Multidisciplinary Maritime Studies

Wilton Library Association for The Brubeck Collection and Digital Archive

District of Columbia
The Committee of Incarcerated Artists and Writers for Prison Reimagined: Presidential Portrait Project

Tudor Place Historic House & Garden for Ancestral Spaces: People of African Descent at Tudor Place 

Illinois
Lincoln Presidential Foundation for Fortifying Our Democracy: Lincoln’s Lyceum Address

Looking for Lincoln Heritage Coalition for Journey to Freedom: Illinois’ Underground Railroad

McLean County Museum of History for A Deadly Deception: The Asbestos Tragedy in McLean County

Indiana
Elkhart County Historical Museum for Clues Through the Lens

Kansas
Kauffman Museum at Bethel College for A Day with the Birds: Community Science & the Audubon Christmas Bird Count

Kentucky
Louisville Story Program for I’m Glad About It: The Legacy of Gospel Music in Louisville, 1958-1981 *History in Progress Award winner

Maryland
Maryland Historical Trust/Jefferson Patterson Park & Museum for Witnesses of Wallville

Massachusetts
Historic New England for The Importance of Being Furnished: Four Bachelors at Home

Padres Latinos de Somerville Public Schools and the Somerville Museum for Museo Inmigrante: Stories of Resilience from Somerville’s Padres Latinos

United Lynn Pride for Through a Rainbow Lens, A Reflection on Lynn’s LGBTQ+ History *Albert B. Corey Award winner

Michigan
Detroit Historical Society for The Hustle: Celebrating Detroit’s Unsung Entrepreneurs *History in Progress Award winner

Jewish Historical Society of Michigan for In the Neighborhood: Everyday Life on Hastings Street

Minnesota
Minnesota Historical Society for Many Voices, Many Stories, One Place Exhibit at Historic Fort Snelling

Defend Glendale & Public Housing Coalition for We’re Still Here: Glendale Townhomes 70th Anniversary: 1952-2022

Mississippi
Katie Blount for decades of visionary and inclusive leadership at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History

Missouri
Lochmueller Group for The Foot: A Community Remembered

The National Museum of Toys and Miniatures for Portraits of Childhood: Black Dolls from the Collection of Deborah Neff

Nevada
Springs Preserve for Nuwu Pahsats

New Jersey
New Jersey Historical Commission dba RevolutionNJ for Tavern Talks

Stoutsburg Sourland African American Museum for The Head that Wears the Crown: Black Women’s Headwear from Slavery to Freedom

Stoutsburg Sourland African American Museum for 1899 Camp Meeting Reenactment

New Mexico
Wingfield Heritage House Museum for Ruidoso Rewind

New York
Geoffrey Miller for decades of preserving and sharing Ulster County’s history

Seward House Museum for Rooted in Reform

North Carolina
North Carolina State Capitol for From Naming to Knowing: Uncovering Slavery at the North Carolina State Capitol

Ohio
Massillon Museum for Gilding Northeast Ohio: Fashion & Fortune 1870–1900

Pennsylvania
Scott R. Becker for decades of leadership in the railway history community

Historical Society of Pennsylvania for Resurrecting Voices: The Philadelphia Black Experience Podcast

Pennsylvania Trolley Museum’s Welcome and Education Center for Pennsylvania Trolley Museum’s Welcome and Education Center

Rhode Island
Newport Historical Society for A Name, A Voice, A Life: The Black Newporters of the 17th-19th Centuries Exhibition

Tennessee
Belmont Mansion Association for Upon the Toils of Many: The Story of Enslaved, Free Black, and Immigrant Laborers at Belmont Mansion

Texas
Bullock Texas State History Museum for Legacies of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

Neill-Cochran House Museum for Reckoning With the Past: The Untold Story of Race in Austin

Virginia
Manassas Museum for Manassas Museum (re)Imagined

The William & Mary Bray School Lab for The Williamsburg Bray School: A History Through Records, Reflections, and Rediscovery

The Valentine Museum for Valentine Studio Project

Washington
Whitman College and Sheehan Gallery for Picturing Family : Métis Life in the Walla Walla Valley

West Virginia
Community Coalition for Social Justice, Inc. (CCSJ) for Celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and West Virginians’ Experiences in Civil Rights: How We Have Been Connected All Along

Wisconsin
Neville Public Museum for Telling Our Stories: LGBTQ+ Voices of Northeast Wisconsin

Publication Awards
Large Press: The Realms of Oblivion: An Excavation of the Davies Manor Historic Site’s Omitted Stories by Andrew Ross (Vanderbilt University Press)

Small Press/Independent: Oro Valley: The First Fifty Years by James A. Williams (independently published)