Loubat Prize

The Loubat Prize was a pair of prizes awarded by Columbia University every five years between 1898 and 1958 for the best social science works in the English language about North America.

The awards were established and endowed by Joseph Florimond, Duc de Loubat in 1893. The awards were given "in recognition of the best works printed in the English language on the history, geography, archaeology, ethnology, philology, or numismatics of North America."

Note that Loubat Prizes were also awarded to acknowledge outstanding social science works about North America in a number of European countries from e.g. The Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities and the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences.

Winners of the Loubat Prize

Year	Awardee	Award
1898	William Henry Holmes for Stone Implements of the Potomac-Chesapeake Tidewater Provinces	$1,000
1913	George Louis Beer for The Origins of the British Colonial System, 1578-1660	$1,000
	John Reed Swanton for Tlinget Myths and Texts and Indian Tribes of the Lower Mississippi Valley and Adjacent Coasts of the Gulf of Mexico	$400
1918	Clarence Walworth Alvord for The Mississippi Valley in American Politics	$1,000
	Herbert Ingram Priestley for José de Galvez, Visitor-General of New Spain, 1765-1771	$400
1923	Justin Harvey Smith for The War with Mexico	$1,000
	William Henry Holmes for Handbook of American Aboriginal Antiquities	$400
1933	Charles O. Paullin and John Kirtland Wright for Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States	$1,000
	Walter Prescott Webb for The Great Plains	$400
1938	Samuel E. Morison for The Founding of Harvard College and Harvard College in the Seventeenth Century	$1,000
	Samuel Kirkland Lothrop for Cocle: An Archaeological Study of Central Panama, Part I	$400
1943	Sylvanus G. Morley for The Inscriptions of Peten	$1,000
	Edmund Cody Burnett for The Continental Congress	$400
1948	Lawrence H. Gipson for The British Empire Before the American Revolution	$1,000
	Hans Kurath for Linguistic Atlas of New England	$400
1953	James G. Randall for Midstream–Lincoln the President	$1,000
	Ralph H. Brown for Historical Geography of the United States	$500
1958	Douglas S. Freeman for George Washington: A Biography	$1,200
	Henry A. Pochmann for German Culture in America, 1600-1900	$600

See also

• List of social sciences awards

References

• "Among The Colleges ... Columbia." "New York Tribune" "December 30, 1895: 13 ("Two prizes, one of not less than $1000 and the other of not less than $400, will be awarded in 1898 to the authors of the best works on the history, geography, archeology, ethnology, philology or numismatics of North America. They are to be known as the Loubat Prizes, ...").
• "Awarded Loubat Prize - Dr. John R. Swanton Honored for Books on Indians." Evening Star (Washington, D.C.) May 11, 1913: 15 ("The prize, which carries with it $400, was founded in 1893 by the Duc de Loubat, formerly of New York City, but now a resident of Paris, to encourage researches in the history, geography, archeology, ethnology, philology or numismatics of North America.").
• "Mr. Holmes' Honors. Washington Scientist Receives An Important Prize." "Evening Star (Washington, D.C.) June 10, 1898:10 (“The award of the Le Duc de Loubat prizes, founded by Columbia College of New York, to be awarded one in five years, for the most noteworthy works in American anthropology, has been made, and the first grand prize of $1000 was captured by Mr. William Henry Holmes of Washington, head curator of anthropology at the United States National Museum, and formerly curator of the department of ethnology in the Field Museum in Chicago.”).
• "2 Awards Posthumous". New York Times 3 May 1953: 113.
• "Announce Loubat Prizes". New York Times 9 May 1918: 11.
• "He Is to Receive $1,000 of Columbia Loubat Prize". New York Times 27 May 1948: 26.
• "Literary Awards Made". New York Times 23 Sept. 1958: 30.
• "Loubat Prize Won by Dr. S. G. Morley". New York Times 20 Apr. 1943: 21.
• "March of Nations on Columbia Green". New York Times 7 Jun. 1923: 14.
• "Paullin and Wright Win Loubat Award". New York Times 11 Apr. 1933: 16.
• "Prof. S.E. Morison Wins Loubat Prize". New York Times 9 May 1938: 2.