Edmonds-Gavins Award
(Formerly the Robert D.W. Connor Award, 1953-2022)
Each year, from 1953 to 2022, The Society presented what was then named the Robert D.W. Connor Award for best article in the field of North Carolina history or biography published in the North Carolina Historical Review the preceding year.
At the HSNC meeting in the Fall of 2022, Society members voted to change the name of the award to honor distinguished North Carolina historians Dr. Helen Edmonds and Dr. Raymond Gavins.
Past recipients
| YEAR | WINNER | ARTICLE TITLE |
|---|---|---|
| 1953 | Hugh F. Rankin | |
| 1954 | Hugh F. Rankin | |
| 1955 | Paul Conkin | |
| 1956 | H. G. Jones | |
| 1957 | Diffee W. Standard and Richard W. Griffin | |
| 1958 | H. H. Cunningham | |
| 1959 | Frense A. Logan | |
| 1960 | Vincent P. De Santis | |
| 1961 | Richard L. Watson, Jr. | |
| 1962 | Otto H. Olsen | |
| 1963 | John L. Bell, Jr. | |
| 1964 | Richard Bardolph | |
| 1965 | Richard L. Watson, Jr. | |
| 1966 | Joseph F. Steelman | |
| 1967 | Joseph F. Steelman | |
| 1968 | Melvin L. Urofsky | |
| 1969 | William P. Cumming | |
| 1970 | Joseph F. Steelman | |
| 1971 | Edwin A. Miles | |
| 1972 | Don Higginbotham | |
| 1973 | Memory F. Mitchell and Thornton W. Mitchell | |
| 1974 | James M. Clifton | |
| 1975 | Peter Kent Opper | |
| 1976 | Roberta Sue Alexander | |
| 1977 | Gaines M. Foster | |
| 1978 | James T. Baker | |
| 1979 | Victor B. Howard | |
| 1980 | Lala Carr Steelman | |
| 1981 | Richard Reid | |
| 1982 | David D. Scarboro and William T. Auman | |
| 1983 | Thomas C. Parramore | |
| 1984 | William T. Auman | |
| 1985 | Marcus B. Simpson, Jr. | |
| 1986 | Thomas E. Jeffrey | |
| 1987 | Marc W. Kruman | |
| 1988 | Marcus B. Simpson, Jr. and Sallie W. Simpson | |
| 1989 | Paul D. Escott | |
| 1990 | Gregory De Van Massey | |
| 1991 | Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore | |
| 1992 | Gordon B. McKinney | |
| 1993 | Kenneth R. Janken | |
| 1994 | David S. Cecelski | |
| 1995 | Jon F. Sensbach | |
| 1996 | Jane Turner Censer | |
| 1997 | Sarah Carolina Theusen | |
| 1998 | Patrick J. Huber | |
| 1999 | David C. Carter | |
| 2000 | Sayoko Uesugi | |
| 2001 | Robert B. Outland III | |
| 2002 | Karl E. Campbell | |
| 2003 | Mark L. Bradley | |
| 2004 | Elizabeth Gillespie McRae | |
| 2005 | Chris Myers Asch | |
| 2006 | Michelle LeMaster | |
| 2007 | Roger Biles | |
| 2008 | Mark Newman | |
| 2009 | David La Vere | |
| 2010 | Jerry Gershenhorn | |
| 2011 | Charles W. McKinney Jr. | |
| 2012 | Gael Graham | |
| 2013 | J. Vincent Lowery | |
| 2014 | Warren Milteer | |
| 2015 | Kenneth Janken | |
| 2016 | Warren T. Milteer | |
| 2017 | Thomas L. Howard III | |
| 2018 | Jelani M. Favors | |
| 2019 | Crystal R. Sanders | “’Pursuing the Unfinished Business of Democracy’: Willa B. Player and Liberal Arts Education in the Civil Rights Era” |
| 2020 | Jerry Gershenhorn and Anna Jones | "The Long Black Freedom Struggle in Northampton County, North Carolina, 1930s to 1970s" |
| 2021 | Glen Bowman Bethany Kirkpatrick | "From Confrontation to Conviction: Student Activism at Elizabeth City State Teachers /State College, 1948-1968” "Losing Work in 'The City that Made it Work': Displacement of Black Educators in Charlotte, 1965-1969" |
| 2022 | AWARD NAME CHANGED TO EDMONDS-GAVINS AWARD, October, 2022. | |
| 2022 | Adriene Berney | "How Mary Became Angady: Creating an Emancipated Identity" |
| 2023 | Brian Edwards Brett Riggs | "Selling Sand: W. O. Saunders and the Development of North Carolina’s Outer Banks” "The Return of Standing Wolf” |
| 2024 | David La Vere | “Making War on the Deer: Deer Hunting and Deerskins in Colonial North Carolina” |
| 2025 | Joshua Strayhorn | "'And no sich is to open their mouths in dis place' : James City and the legacies of communal radicalism" |