Submit Nomination
Nominations for the Wyoming Historical Society’s annual awards are made on the forms below, one per category. You do not have to be a member to nominate someone, or to be nominated yourself.
Read the Awards Manual first: it sets out what each category is looking for, what to send with a nomination, and how the committee judges it.
2026 Awards Manual
View Awards ManualChoose a category Eight forms, one per category
Publications
Books and reference works on a Wyoming subject or locale, published during the award period. A winner and a runner-up in each category.
Fiction · Nonfiction, the Jeremy Johnston Award · Biography · Autobiography · Memoir · Poetry · Reference work
Digital
Websites, social media and podcasts that carry Wyoming or local history to a wider audience. Online nominations need a link, not printed material.
Internet website · Social media · Podcast show · Podcast episode
Audio and Visual Documentary
Documentary work in the audio or audio-visual field that makes an outstanding contribution to Wyoming history. Send a copy or a link.
Professional · Non-professional
Fine Arts
Work that promotes, depicts, recognises or preserves Wyoming history. Judged on artistic quality alongside historical significance and accuracy.
Send colour photographs of the piece, never the original
Student Essays
Original essays in Wyoming history on this year’s theme, Wyoming’s Uncommon Voices: Stories from the Past. First place takes $150 in each age group, runner-up $100, and winning essays run in The Wyoming Historian.
Elementary, grades 3–5 · Middle school, grades 6–8 · High school, grades 9–12 · Collegiate · Graduate
Activities
Up to three awards for a well-planned tour of a Wyoming historic site, an outstanding education project, or another activity that carries the state’s history to the public.
Tours · Education projects · Exhibits and other projects
Specialty Awards
Seven named awards for people and organisations: long service, a year’s outstanding work, a lifetime of contribution.
WHS Member of the Year · Historical Organization of the Year · Clara M. & Henry E. Jensen Outstanding Wyoming Teacher · Mabel Brown Cumulative Contribution Award · L.C. Bishop Award · Henryetta Berry Memorial Award · Judge & Mrs. Percy W. Metz Memorial Award
Historic Preservation
Two awards: one for the preservation of a building or place, one for preservation work that is not about a physical structure at all.
Maurine Carley Memorial Preservation Award · Outstanding Preservation Project Award
Before you begin
You do not have to be a member of the Wyoming Historical Society to submit a nomination, or to receive an award.
Deadlines
Each year’s Awards Manual carries that year’s dates. For the 2026 awards, covering work published or completed during 2025, nominations closed on 30 March and student essays on 30 April. Publications and activity projects are worth sending early: every committee member reads them.
Supporting material
The form takes the nomination itself. Anything physical goes to the Awards Committee Chair: a book, photographs of a piece, a recording. Beki Speas, 541 S Thurmond St, Sheridan WY 82801, Pres.whs@gmail.com, 307.899.4094.
And then
Awards are presented at the Annual Conference each fall. A nomination that does not win in one year can be entered for a different award in another, if it is still eligible. Every winners list since 2000 is on Past Winners.