PRESS RELEASE The Historical Society of Pennsylvania 1300 Locust Street Philadelphia, PA 19107 (215) 732-6200 www.hsp.org
For Immediate Release Media Contact: Mary Ann Coyle 215-732-6200, ext. 220 [email protected]
The Historical Society of Pennsylvania presents Founder’s Award to Local Teacher and Three Nationally Recognized Educators
Philadelphia-- The Historical Society of Pennsylvania will present its prestigious Founder’s Award at its annual Founder’s Awards dinner on Saturday, April 17, at the Society. This year’s awards honor four individuals for their Contributions to Historical Education: Donald G. Brownlow, Mary Maples Dunn, Sheldon Hackney, and Gary B. Nash.
Donald G. Brownlow, of The Haverford School, was nominated for the Founder’s Award as a particularly distinguished and effective Philadelphia area teacher. He is renowned for his ability to stimulate students’ interest and enthusiasm in history, his creativity in addressing historical issues, and his legacy of nurturing student historians.
Mary Maples Dunn, co-executive of the American Philosophical Society, has shaped history’s education and future as a professor at Bryn Mawr College, as President of Smith College, as director of Radcliffe College’s Schlesinger Library, and as Acting Dean of the Radcliffe Institute. She is known as a superbly engaging teacher with lasting influence on students.
Sheldon Hackney has served as chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities under President Clinton, president of the University of Pennsylvania, provost of Princeton University, and president of Tulane University. Now teaching at the University of Pennsylvania, Professor Hackney is a distinguished historian of the American South, the Civil Rights Movement, and America of the 1960s.
Gary B. Nash is director of the National Center for History in the Schools at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is also a distinguished social historian who has written on race, class, religion, and politics in early Philadelphia and on history’s role in the city. He helped develop Philadelphia’s "Lights of Liberty" sound and light tour, extending history education beyond the classroom.
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The Historical Society first presented its Founder’s Awards at its 175th Anniversary celebration in 2000. These awards honor individuals and organizations for their exemplary service to history.
“For history to be meaningful, it must be engaging,” says David Moltke-Hansen, president of the Society. “We need to bring history into the Society’s library, but just as importantly into people’s homes, schools and lives. The Founder’s Award allows the Society to honor and support those people who, like Mr. Brownlow, Dr. Dunn, Prof. Hackney, and Prof. Nash, have made nationally significant contributions to history and to public understanding of its power and value.”
Previous Founder’s Awards recipients include Librarian of Congress James Billington for the Study and Preservation of History, author Lorene Carey for Historical Art, Director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art Anne d’Harnoncourt for Cultural Leadership and journalist Jim Lehrer for Public History.
This year’s Founder’s Award celebration begins with a symposium on historical education at the Society, 1300 Locust Street, from 10:00am to 4:45pm. Attendance at the symposium is free of charge.
At 6:30pm, evening celebrations begin with cocktails followed by dinner at 7:30pm. Tickets for the dinner begin at $175 and may be obtained by calling the Society at the contact number given above.
With nearly 600,000 printed items and over 19 million manuscripts and graphic items, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania has one of the largest, richest, and most significant collections of materials on American history. A true national treasure, the Society holds many of the core documents of the founding and early development of the United States. A few examples of the Society’s treasures are a hand-written copy of the national anthem, The Star-Bangled Banner, c. 1840; a printer’s proof of the Declaration of Independence, July 1776; an early draft of the Constitution of the United States, August 1787; and two copies of the Emancipation Proclamation signed by President Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of State William H. Seward, 1863.
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