Kemper and Leila Williams Prize is sponsored by Kemper And Leila Williams Foundation. An annual prize awarded to the author of the best-published work on Louisiana history. The prize honors the founders of The Historic New Orleans Collection.

Williams Prize | Historic New Orleans Collection Awarded annually by HNOC and the Louisiana Historical Association, the Kemper and Leila Williams Prize in Louisiana History highlights excellence in research and writing on Louisiana history. Administration and funding for the Kemper and Leila Williams Prize is provided by the Historic New Orleans Collection.

The prize jury is appointed by the Louisiana Historical Association with a chairperson from the Historic New Orleans Collection. The prize includes a cash award of $1,500 and a plaque, presented each March. HNOC, LHA select “Pinchback: America’s First Black Governor” for 2025 Williams Prize Author Nicholas Patler sheds new light on the life of an influential leader in Reconstruction-era Louisiana.

The Williams Prize Committee invites nominations of eligible works published between January 1 and December 31, 2026. Works about all aspects of Louisiana history and culture are eligible, as are works placing Louisiana subjects in regional, national, or international context. The submission deadline is Tuesday, December 1, 2026.

Please submit the online form below and mail five (5) copies of the nominated work for arrival by December 1, 2026, to: Chair, Williams Prize Committee The Historic New Orleans Collection 410 Chartres Street, New Orleans, Louisiana 70130-2179 For books published between December 1 and December 31, 2026, only, a digital copy of the book may be submitted until print copies are available.

Please submit a PDF file via the form below by the December 1 deadline, then mail five (5) copies to the address above as soon as available. If using a fulfillment service, please be cognizant of shipment timing. Submissions received past the deadline may not be included for consideration.

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Dr. Prof. Country Select an option Afghanistan Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antigua & Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Ascension Island Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia & Herzegovina Botswana Brazil British Indian Ocean Territory British Virgin Islands Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Caribbean Netherlands Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia Comoros Congo - Brazzaville Congo - Kinshasa Cook Islands Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Curaçao Cyprus Czechia Côte d’Ivoire Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia Falkland Islands Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guernsey Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Honduras Hong Kong SAR China Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Isle of Man Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jersey Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kosovo Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macao SAR China Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar (Burma) Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island North Korea North Macedonia Northern Mariana Islands Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territories Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Russia Rwanda Réunion Samoa San Marino Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Sint Maarten Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Korea South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka St.

Barthélemy St. Helena St. Kitts & Nevis St.

Lucia St. Martin St. Pierre & Miquelon St.

Vincent & Grenadines Sudan Suriname Svalbard & Jan Mayen Sweden Switzerland Syria São Tomé & Príncipe Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Tokelau Tonga Trinidad & Tobago Tristan da Cunha Tunisia Turkmenistan Turks & Caicos Islands Tuvalu Türkiye U.S. Virgin Islands Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Vatican City Venezuela Vietnam Wallis & Futuna Western Sahara Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe Åland Islands PDF Upload Attach digital copy of book here [for books published between December 1 and December 31, 2026, only] Publisher address Address 1 Country Select an option Afghanistan Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antigua & Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Ascension Island Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia & Herzegovina Botswana Brazil British Indian Ocean Territory British Virgin Islands Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Caribbean Netherlands Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia Comoros Congo - Brazzaville Congo - Kinshasa Cook Islands Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Curaçao Cyprus Czechia Côte d’Ivoire Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia Falkland Islands Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guernsey Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Honduras Hong Kong SAR China Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Isle of Man Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jersey Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kosovo Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macao SAR China Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar (Burma) Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island North Korea North Macedonia Northern Mariana Islands Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territories Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Russia Rwanda Réunion Samoa San Marino Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Sint Maarten Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Korea South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka St.

Barthélemy St. Helena St. Kitts & Nevis St.

Lucia St. Martin St. Pierre & Miquelon St.

Vincent & Grenadines Sudan Suriname Svalbard & Jan Mayen Sweden Switzerland Syria São Tomé & Príncipe Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Tokelau Tonga Trinidad & Tobago Tristan da Cunha Tunisia Turkmenistan Turks & Caicos Islands Tuvalu Türkiye U.S. Virgin Islands Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Vatican City Venezuela Vietnam Wallis & Futuna Western Sahara Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe Åland Islands Applicant signature * The Williams Prize Committee is appointed annually by the Louisiana Historical Association.

It reserves the right to amend its award procedure and determine eligibility of entries without prior notice.

Your browser does not support the Signature field Clear This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Pinchback: America’s First Black Governor (University Press of Mississippi) The Carceral City: Slavery and the Making of Mass Incarceration in New Orleans, 1803-1930 (University of North Carolina Press) Banking on Slavery: Financing Southern Expansion in the Antebellum United States (Chicago University Press) 2022 - Kathryrn Olivarius Necropolis: Disease, Power, and Capitalism in the Cotton Kingdom (Belknap Press of Harvard University Press) The Ballad of Robert Charles Searching for the New Orleans Riot of 1900 2020 - Jessica Marie Johnson Wicked Flesh: Black Women, Intimacy, and Freedom in the Atlantic World (University of Pennsylvania Press) Voices of the Enslaved: Love, Labor, and Longing in French Louisiana (Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture/University of North Carolina Press) Race and Education in New Orleans: Creating the Segregated City, 1764–1960 (Louisiana State University Press) 2017 - Urmi Engineer Willoughby Yellow Fever, Race and Ecology in Nineteenth Century New Orleans (Louisiana State University Press) Slavery’s Metropolis: Unfree Labor in New Orleans during the Age of Revolutions (Cambridge University Press) Building the Land of Dreams: New Orleans and the Transformation of Early America (Princeton University Press) The Great New Orleans Kidnapping Case: Race, Law, and Justice in the Reconstruction Era (Oxford University Press) The Merchants’ Capital: New Orleans and the Political Economy of the Nineteenth-Century South (Cambridge University Press) 2012 - Lawrence N.

Powell The Accidental City: Improvising New Orleans (Harvard University Press) Public Spaces, Private Gardens: A History of Designed Landscape in New Orleans (Louisiana State University Press) 2010 - Richard Campanella Lincoln in New Orleans: The 1828–1831 Flatboat Voyages and Their Place in History (University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press) Race, Sex and Social Order in Early New Orleans (Johns Hopkins University Press) 2008 - Sophie Burton and F.

Todd Smith Colonial Natchitoches: A Creole Community on the Louisiana-Texas Frontier (Texas A&M University Press) Masterless Mistresses: The New Orleans Ursulines and the Development of a New World Society, 1727–1834 (Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, by the University of North Carolina Press) New Orleans on Parade: Tourism and the Transformation of the Crescent City (Louisiana State University Press) Degrees of Freedom: Louisiana and Cuba after Slavery (Harvard University Press) The Nation’s Crucible: The Louisiana Purchase and the Creation of America A Perfect War of Politics: Parties, Politicians, and Democracy in Louisiana, 1824–1861 (Louisiana State University Press) François Vallé and His World: Upper Louisiana Before Lewis and Clark (University of Missouri Press) Reconstruction in the Cane Fields: From Slavery to Free Labor in Louisiana’s Sugar Parishes, 1862–1880 (Louisiana State University Press) 2000 - Lawrence N.

Powell Troubled Memory: Anne Levy, the Holocaust, and David Duke’s Louisiana (University of North Carolina Press) Spaniards, Planters, and Slaves: The Spanish Regulation of Slavery in Louisiana, 1763–1803 (Texas A&M University Press) French Roots in the Illinois Country: The Mississippi Frontier in Colonial Times (Illinois University Press) Bounded Lives, Bounded Places: Free Black Society in Colonial New Orleans, 1769–1803 Silk Stockings and Ballot Boxes: Women and Politics in New Orleans, 1920–1963 (University of Georgia Press) Race and Democracy: The Civil Rights Struggle in Louisiana, 1915–1972 (University of Georgia Press) 1994 - Judith Kelleher Schafer Slavery, the Civil Law, and the Supreme Court of Louisiana (Louisiana State University Press) Righteous Lives: Narratives of the New Orleans Civil Rights Movement (New York University Press) Sweet Chariot: Slave Family and Household Structure in Nineteenth-Century Louisiana (University of North Carolina Press) "Administration of the Illinois Country: The French Debate" 1991 - Daniel H.

Usner Jr. "'Fragments of This Erratic Race': American Indians in Nineteenth-Century New Orleans" The Kingfish and His Realm: The Life and Times of Huey P. Long (Louisiana State University Press) 1990 - Michael L. Kurtz and Morgan D.

Peoples Earl K. Long: The Saga of Uncle Earl and Louisiana Politics (Louisiana State University Press) Texans on the Teche: The Texas Brigade at the Battles of Bisland and Irish Bend, April 12–14, 1863 1989 - Lawrence E. Estaville Jr. Confederate Neckties: Louisiana Railroads in the Civil War 1989 - Kimberly S.

Hanger "Privilege and Honor to Serve: The Free Black Militia of Spanish New Orleans" The Canary Islanders of Louisiana (Louisiana State University Press) Lee’s Tigers: The Louisiana Infantry in the Army of Northern Virginia (Louisiana State University) "Cherchez les femmes: Some Glimpses of Women in Early Eighteenth-Century Louisiana" "Getting Places in a Hurry: The Development of Aviation in Long-Era South Louisiana" To Rule or Ruin: New Orleans Dock Workers’ Struggle for Control, 1902–1903 1986 - Annabelle M.

Melville Louis William DuBourg: Bishop of Louisiana and the Floridas, Bishop of Montauban, and Archbishop of Besancon, 1766–1833 (Loyola University Press) "Men of Stability and Influence: The Regular Democrats of New Orleans" Parnassus on the Mississippi: The Southern Review and the Baton Rouge Literary Community, 1935–1942 (Louisiana State University Press) "The Decline of German Ethnicity in New Orleans, 1880–1930" Grace King: A Southern Destiny (Louisiana State University Press) Wharf-Rats, Cutthroats and Thieves: The Louisiana Tigers, 1861–1862 1982 - Joseph G.

Dawson III Army Generals and Reconstruction: Louisiana, 1862–1877 (Louisiana State University Press) "Organized Crime in Louisiana History: Myth and Reality" Petroleum, Pipelines, and Politics: The Pine Island Situation John Fitzpatrick and Political Continuity in New Orleans, 1886–1899 Labor, Church, and the Sugar Establishment in Louisiana, 1887–1976 (Louisiana State University Press) Cajuns, Conscripts, and the Civil War Abraham Lincoln and Reconstruction: The Louisiana Experiment (Princeton University Press) Germans in Colonial Louisiana, The First Decade (1721–1732) Old Mobile: Fort Louis de la Louisiane, 1702–1711 (Museum of the City of Mobile) "The 1928 Presidential Election in Louisiana: Some Preliminary Considerations" 1976 - John Preston Moore Revolt in Louisiana: The Spanish Occupation, 1766–1770 (Louisiana State University Press) Louisiana Reconstructed, 1862–1877 (Louisiana State University Press) The Segregation Struggle in Louisiana 1862–1877 (University of Illinois Press) "Huey Long and the Cotton Plan of 1931" Supporting new historical research through funded scholarships and awards Explore paid opportunities for undergraduate and postgraduate students interested in museum studies and archival research.