Updated: 11/12/25
The Utah Historical Society, a division of the Utah Department of Cultural & Community Engagement, is pleased to announce the recipients of its 2025 Annual Awards. These awards honor individuals, organizations, and students who have made outstanding contributions to the study, preservation, and promotion of Utah’s history, prehistory, and historic preservation efforts.
The 2025 award recipients will be honored at a special ceremony on Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, at the Hill Aerospace Museum. Tickets go on sale to the public Monday, Nov. 17, 2025.
Lean more about each award and recipient at history.utah.gov/awards.
2025 Utah Historical Society Award Winners
Utah Historical Society Fellow
- Dr. Larry Gerlach
Outstanding Achievement Awards
- Aaron D. Clark
- Acacia Yuan
- Al-Mustafa Foundation
- Brigham City Museum of History & Art
- Buffalo Soldier Heritage Trail – Sema Hadithi and the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO)
- Dave Brewer
- David Peterson
- Ronald Fox
- Driven 2 Teach – Gail Miller
- Fanny Guadalupe Blauer
- JoAnna Sorensen
- Justina Parsons-Bernstein, Monica Stamm, and Utah Department of Natural Resources: Division of State Parks
- Michelle Fuller
- Ryan Paul
- Sheila Nadimi
- The Plains Production Company
Best Scholarly Article
- Emily Marie Crumpton-Deason, “Mammy Chloe: Removing Fiction from Nonfictional Family Stories,” Utah Historical Quarterly 92, no. 3 (Summer 2024).
Charles Redd Center for Western Study Award
- Matthew C. Godfrey, “A West Side (Sugar) Story: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Amalgamated Sugar Company, and the West Cache Sugar Company,” Utah Historical Quarterly 92, no. 4 (Fall 2024).
Editors’ Choice Award
- Michael L. Shamo for, “The Majestic Virgin Forgot Her Promise”: An Environmental History of Irrigating Southern Utah, 1849–1910,” published in the Utah Historical Quarterly 92, no. 2 (Spring 2024).
Best Book in Utah History
- W. Paul Reeve, Christopher B. Rich, and LaJean Purcell Carruth for “This Abominable Slavery: Race, Religion, and the Battle Over Human Bondage in Antebellum Utah,” published by Oxford University Press, 2024.
General Utah History Article Award
- Melissa Wei-Tsing Inouye and Joseph Soderborg for “‘We Had a Symbiotic Relationship’: The Structure and Texture of Chinese-White Relationships in Depression-Era Utah,” published in the Journal of Mormon History (2024) 50 (3): 73-88.
Finalist for Best Book on Utah History, funded by Smith-Pettit Foundation
- Benjamin E. Park for, “American Zion: A New History of Mormonism,” published by Liveright Publishing Corporation in 2024.
Best Student Paper in Utah Women’s History
- Emma Webb, “Women in the Oquirrh Mountains,” University of Utah.
Please join us in congratulating and celebrating these individuals who have made significant contributions to history work across the state. Learn more about the awards and each winner at history.utah.gov/awards.
About The Utah Historical Society Annual Awards Ceremony
Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026
5:30–8 p.m.
Hill Aerospace Museum
7961 Cottonwood St Building 1955, Hill AFB, UT 84056
Tickets available to the public beginning Nov. 17, 2025 at history.utah.gov/awards
