DES MOINES, Iowa - The State Historical Society of Iowa recognized two top literary articles on Iowa history published in the last year at its annual Celebrating Community History Awards Monday at the State Historical Building in Des Moines.

The Throne/Aldrich Award recognizes individuals, organizations, and communities who have made outstanding contributions to the study and practice of Iowa history. The award recognizes the best articles published in the Historical Society publications, Iowa Heritage Illustrated magazine and The Annals of Iowa scholarly journal, during the previous calendar year.

Anne Beiser Allen earned the award for her article, “Sowing Seeds of Kindness—And Change: A History of the Iowa Association of Colored Women’s Clubs” in Iowa Heritage Illustrated.

Allen’s article on the history of the Iowa Association of Colored Women’s Clubs tells the important story of how African-American women in Iowa joined forces for education, self-improvement, and social and political change. By culling the records of this century-old federation of women’s clubs, the author shows the clubwomen’s struggles and achievements, including establishment of the Iowa Federation Home for black women college students who were denied housing at the University of Iowa.

Certificates of Recognition were presented to Peter Hoehnle of Ames for his article, “Iowa Clubwomen Rise to World Stage: Dorothy Houghton and Ruth Sayre”; and to C. Elizabeth Raymond, professor of history at the University of Nevada-Reno, for “Iowa, the Garden of the World: From Prairies to Farmland.”

Hoehnle also took the top Throne/Aldrich award for his article, “Machine in the Garden: The Woolen Textile Industry of the Amana Society, 1785-1942,” published in The Annals of Iowa.

Hoehnle is a Ph.D. candidate in the agricultural history and rural studies program at Iowa State University. His article, “Machine in the Garden: The Woolen Textile Industry of the Amana Society, 1785–1942,” describes developments in the Amana Society’s woolen textile industry from its beginnings until a decade after the Great Change that ended the colonies’ communitarian phase.

Hoehnle makes effective use of previously untapped sources on the Amanas. More importantly, he shows a new face of the Amanas—a capitalistic, industrial enterprise that played an integral role in this communi-tarian society, which is usually perceived as existing in a pastoral, garden-like setting.

Certificates of Recognition were presented to Sarah W. Tracy, assistant professor of the history of medicine and director of the medical humanities program at the University of Oklahoma’s Honors College, for her article, “Contesting Habitual Drunkenness: State Medical Reform for Iowa’s Inebriates, 1902-1920” and to Dorothy Schwieder, professor emerati of history at Iowa State University, for her article, “A Farmer and the Ku Klux Klan in Northwest Iowa.”

The Benjamin F. Shambaugh Awards were also presented during the ceremony to recognize the most significant books on Iowa history published in 2002.

Robert F. Martin earned the award for his book Hero of the Heartland: Billy Sunday and the Transformation of American Society, 1862-1935. Martin is professor of history—and recently selected chair of the department—at the University of Northern Iowa. Hero of the Heartland is a short interpretive biography of one of Iowa’s most colorful native characters—and one of the nation’s most popular Protestant evangelists—Billy Sunday.

A Certificate of Recognition was presented to Jeffrey D. Marlett, assistant professor of Religious Studies at the College of St. Rose in Albany, NY, for his book Saving the Heartland: Catholic Missionaries in Rural America, 1920-1960.

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