The International Society for Landscape, Place, & Materials Culture is pleased to announce the recipients of its 2017 Awards:
Henry H. Douglas Distinguished Service Award
On behalf of the selection committee, I am honored to present the Henry H. Douglas Award Distinguished Service Award for the Research, Publication, and Teaching of Material Culture to one of our organization’s youngsters.
The Award is named in memory of the founder of the Pioneer America Society, today the International Society for Landscape, Place, and Material Culture, Mr. Henry H. Douglas, and is given to an individual who has made significant contributions over the years to furthering the Society’s goals through service, teaching, publications, and/or the promotion of historic preservation.
This year’s winner first delivered a paper in 2006 and has been presenting papers at our conference almost every year for the last decade. The contributions that this member has made to the society have been significant, starting with an appointment to the Board of Directors in 2011. After that year, we made a compelling argument for why this person should become the Society’s Treasurer. By then, we were sure that we had a keeper, who has continued to serve us well.
In 2016, this distinguished servant was a member of the Historic Preservation Award committee, is currently a member of the Conference Advisory Committee, and last year, hosted a wonderful gathering in Bowling Green, KY.
Her research has largely focused on the multiple dimensions of Mammoth Cave, its tourists, its representations, as well as the use of historical GIS to help understand the landscape of Mammoth Cave prior to its development as a national park site.
Of course, if you are uncertain yet who this year’s winner is, I can only offer this classic joke: What do you call two mushrooms sitting at a bar? Two fun guys (fungis)! Please join me in congratulating Katie Algeo of Western Kentucky University, the 2017 recipient of the Henry H. Douglas Distinguished Service Award.
Fred B. Kniffen Book Award
The Fred B. Kniffen Book Award, established in 1989, honors the work of Fred B. Kniffen, a long-time scholar at Louisiana State University. The Kniffen Award recognizes the best-authored book in the field of North American material culture.
The recipient this year is Jeanne Kisacky, for her book Rise of the Modern Hospital: An Architectural History of Health and Healing, 1870-1940 (University of Pittsburgh Press).
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Allen G. Noble Book Award
The Allen G. Noble Book Award is given in honor of the scholarship Allen G. Noble contributed to cultural geography. The award recognizes the best-edited book in the field of North American material culture. No award was given this year.
ISLPMC Historic Preservation Award
ISLPMC presented its 2017 Historic Preservation Award to the Friends of Historic Spring City for the organization’s outstanding contributions to the recognition and preservation of Central Utah’s heritage and material culture.
This non-profit organization has been active since 1983 and has been the driving force behind the success of many historic preservation projects in Spring City. The organization holds an annual homes tour/art sale that raises much-needed funds for projects that it later carries out. The group’s primary preservation project, however, has been the decades-long rehabilitation of the 1899 Spring City School, which was just completed earlier in 2017.
Local preservationists purchased the building in 1977 for just $10. In the years that followed, town residents brought the building back from the brink of destruction. During the first year, local contractor Craig Paulsen shored up failing roof trusses to support new roofing and to forestall further damage to the interior. In 1980, the school was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
During the next 30 years sporadic work was completed as funding allowed. Then 10 years ago, significant work began, including seismic upgrades, a new framing system on the third floor, steel framing in the chimneys, and a new roof structure. Restoration work has included the building’s elaborate wood finishes and ornamentation. Now known as the Old School Community Center, the project represents the infusion of almost $2 million dollars, which is remarkable for a town of just 1,023 people. Spring City also has many other historic buildings, which have been rehabilitated in accordance with the federal historic preservation standards, qualifying their owners for the historic preservation tax credit.
Representing the Friends of Spring City to receive the award were its President, Alison Anderson, and Pam Newman, a board member.
The school was also featured on the Saturday bus tour and ISLPMC members got to see the building up close.
A staircase at Spring City undergoes a beautiful restoration.
At the awards banquet in Salt Lake City, ISLPMC presented its 2017 Preservation Certificate of Merit to the Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints for the church’s efforts to preserve, maintain, and restore its stock of historic buildings throughout the US and across the world.
Over the past few decades the LDS Church has placed major emphasis on preserving these buildings, reversing an earlier trend of replacing buildings with new ones, which persisted during the 20th century. Additionally, in those instances where the LDS Church has constructed new sanctuaries, it has repurposed historic buildings for other uses.
Following a December 2010 fire that nearly destroyed the Provo Tabernacle, LDS Church leaders decided to restore the tabernacle and dedicate it as the Provo City Center Temple. The project was completed in 2016, and is the first time the LDS Church has built two temples in one city, and only the second time it has restored a pioneer-era tabernacle for a temple (the first time was when the LDS Church converted the 1907 Uintah Stake Tabernacle to its new use as the Vernal Temple).
In St. George, Utah, the tabernacle there closed in June 2016 in order to perform seismic upgrades to make the building better able to withstand an earthquake. In addition to the structural work, historic features inside the building are also receiving restoration work including its hardware, pews, and repairs to cracks in finishes. All of the work is scheduled for completion in time for the 2017 holiday season.
Representing the LDS Church History Department to receive the historic preservation certificate of merit was Jenny Lund.
Door knobs at the Salt Lake Temple
Warren E. Roberts Graduate Student Paper Competition Award
The Warren E. Roberts Graduate Student Paper Competition, established in 2004 in memory of folklife scholar Warren E. Roberts, a longtime ISLPMC member and former member of the Board of Directors, is an annual competitive award that recognizes excellence in original graduate student fieldwork, documentary research, and writing in the area of traditional North American material culture. The 2017 winner is Meghann E. Jack, PhD candidate in the Department of Folklore, Memorial University of Newfoundland. Paper title: “Reforming the Nineteenth Century Barn in St. Mary’s, Nova Scotia.”
Wilhelm-Keiffer Student Research Award
The Wilhelm-Keiffer Student Research Award, established in 2012, is in honor of long-time ISLPMC member, Hubert Wilhelm, a cultural geographer, whose enthusiasm for teaching has had a global impact, and is in memory of the Society’s Executive Director, Artimus Keiffer, an architectural geographer and student of Hubert Wilhelm. The award is an annual competitive prize in the field of American material culture which is open to both undergraduate and graduate students. No award was presented in 2017.