On May 3, 2019, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania will host its annual Founder’s Award celebration with the theme “Past, Present, and Future: The Quest for Equality.” HSP will honor Pulitzer Prize-winning author and Harvard professor Annette Gordon-Reed with the Founder’s Award, given for exemplary service in history. Charles T. Cullen, interim president of HSP, will receive the Heritage Award, presented to those who have made significant contributions to history and heritage in the Philadelphia region.

This festive evening will take place at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania (1300 Locust Street, Philadelphia, PA) and will include a cocktail reception, dinner, and awards ceremony. The evening’s proceeds will support the preservation of HSP’s collections.

Details and registration are available at hsp.org/founders. Business attire.

About Annette Gordon Reed

Annette Gordon-Reed is the Charles Warren Professor of American Legal History at Harvard Law School and a Professor of History in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University, and formerly the Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study (2010-2016) and the Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Visiting Professor of American History at Queen's College, University of Oxford (2014-2015). She won the Pulitzer Prize in History in 2009 for The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family (W.W. Norton, 2009), a subject she had previously written about in Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy (University Press of Virginia, 1997). She is also the author of Andrew Johnson (Times Books/Henry Holt, 2010). Her most recently published book (with Peter S. Onuf) is “Most Blessed of the Patriarchs”: Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of the Imagination (Liveright Publishing, 2016). Her honors include a fellowship from the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library, a Guggenheim Fellowship in the humanities, a MacArthur Fellowship, the National Humanities Medal, the National Book Award, and the Woman of Power & Influence Award from the National Organization for Women in New York City. Gordon-Reed was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2011 and is a member of the Academy’s Commission on the Humanities and Social Sciences.

About Charles T. Cullen

Charles T. Cullen is completing a term as Interim President & CEO of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, a position he assumed on August 1, 2016. With a Ph.D. in legal history from the University of Virginia, he joined the history department at the College of William and Mary in 1970, and then moved to Princeton University in 1979. At the former, he became editor of the Papers of John Marshall, and at the latter the Papers of Thomas Jefferson, producing 12 volumes in those editions. At both projects he pioneered the use of computers in historical editing. In 1986 he accepted an appointment as President and Librarian of the Newberry Library in Chicago, a position he held until retiring in 2005. He continues his interest in Jefferson research and the use of computers in the humanities. After nine years as a member of the board of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, owner of Monticello, he continues today as a trustee emeritus.

About the Founder’s Award

The Historical Society of Pennsylvania seeks not only to enrich and maintain the historical record, but also to champion history’s uses and enhance its value to the public. As part of its 175th anniversary celebration, HSP established the Founder’s Award for Exemplary Service to History to recognize leaders in these causes. The medal was commissioned with the assistance of Lea Aspinwall Cadwalader, in memory of her husband John Cadwalader, a longtime HSP councilor. The face of the medal is based on Alexander Milne Calder’s model for the statue of William Penn atop Philadelphia’s City Hall.

Past Honorees:

2000
James Biddle
Clayborne Carson
Lorene Cary
Hanna Holborn Gray

2001
Anne d’Harnoncourt
Barbara and Henry Jordan
Jim Lehrer

2002
James Billington
Charles Blockson
Vartan Gregorian
Bette Bao Lord

2003
Ken Burns

2004
Donald G. Brownlow
Mary Maples Dunn
Sheldon Hackney
Gary Nash

2005
Robert Bogle
Ed Bradley
Terry Gross
Al Hunt
Trudy Rubin

2006
Andrea Mitchell
Denise Scott Brown
Robert Venturi

2007
The Honorable William T. Coleman Jr., Esq.

2008
Al Día
The Jewish Exponent
The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Tribune

2009
John C. and Chara C. Haas
Joseph M. Torsella

2010
Cokie Roberts
Jerry and Marciarose Shestack

2011
Susan Eisenhower

2012
David McCullough

2013
Jon Meacham

About the Heritage Award

The Heritage Award, created in 2005, is presented to those who have made significant contributions to the future of the heritage of the Philadelphia region and in support of the work of HSP. The face of the medal depicts HSP’s historic Addison Hutton building at 1300 Locust Street, the repository for over 21 million documents (such as the only handwritten working drafts of the U.S. Constitution), books, photographs, maps, and other graphics—essential material for understanding the nation, the commonwealth, and Philadelphia.

Past Honorees:

2005
Bernard Guet
Andrew Speizman

2006
George W. Connell
Ira Harkavy, Ph.D.

2007
John C. Bogle

2009
Barbara L. Greenfield

2010
Henry Lafayette Collins III

2011
Howard H. Lewis

2012
Collin F. McNeil

2013
Sarah D. Price
Philip Price Jr.

About the Historical Society of Pennsylvania

The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, founded in 1824, is one of the nation’s largest archives of historical documents. We are proud to serve as Philadelphia’s Library of American History, with over 21 million manuscripts, books, and graphic images encompassing centuries of US history. HSP serves more than 4,000 on-site researchers annually and millions more around the globe who use its online resources. HSP is also a leading center for the documentation and study of ethnic communities and immigrant experiences in the 20th century, and one of the largest family history libraries in the country. Through educator workshops, research opportunities, public programs and lectures throughout the year, we strive to make history relevant and exhilarating to all.