HSP's upcoming History in Pennsylvania Awards (HIP Awards) next month will honor several organizations that participated in the "Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories." We're very proud of them, and hope that you'll join us on October 24, 2013, to celebrate their accomplishments!

The HIP Awards recognize achievements at all-volunteer managed as well as small and mid-sized history and heritage organizations in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Philadelphia counties. This year, honors will be given out at a reception here at the newly--and beautifully!--renovated Historical Society of Pennsylvania on Thursday, October 24, 2013 from 5:30-7:30 pm. The keynote speaker will be Bill Marimow, editor of the The Philadelphia Inquirer and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner. It will be a fun event, a celebration of history in Southeastern Pennsylvania, and an opportunity to meet up with old friends and network with other history and heritage professionals. The full list of award-winners features a few names that will be familiar to regular followers of this blog. Congratulations to them!

Awardees who have participated in the HCI-PSAR project include:

PNC Bank Volunteer of the Year Award

Winner: Roy Ziegler, longtime volunteer at the New Hope Historical Society, author, and chair of New Hope History Day

Award for Excellence in Education and Public Programming
Organization-Size: All-Volunteer

Winner: Newtown Square Historical Society for its Paper Mill House School Tour, in which homeschoolers of all ages interpret history and act as tour guides

Nathan and Karen Raab Award for Excellence in Stewardship and Collections Care
Organization-Size: All-Volunteer

Winner: Perkasie Historical Society for the restoration of its museum and reorganization and preservation of its collection

The HIP Awards are organized by the History Affiliates, a program launched by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania with funding from The Barra Foundation to support the hundreds of small- to mid-sized history organizations in Southeastern Pennsylvania. Their project is more far-reaching in scope than HCI-PSAR: we just focus on archives, but the History Affiliates confront capacity-building, volunteerism, marketing, and other challenges through a monthly newsletter, professional development workshops, mentoring of organizations through AASLH’s StEPs Program, and other initiatives. If you're a small history or heritage organization in Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, or Montgomery counties and you're not a member, you should join today. Membership is free!

Register now to support all of this year's HIP Award winners, and to promote the history and heritage community at large by attending the HIP Awards reception on October 24, 2013. We hope to see you there!