Established in 1974, this medal honors the creation of a reference work of outstanding quality and significance, including, but not limited to: writing, compiling, editing, or publishing books or electronic information. The award is given to works that have been published or made available for the first time during the calendar year preceding the presentation of the award.
Dartmouth College established sponsorship of the award in 1974 upon the suggestion of Dean Lathem, Dartmouth College librarian. Dartmouth College commissioned the internationally celebrated graphic artist Rudolph Ruzicka to design the bronze medal. Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom, who presided not only over the arts and sciences, but over all intellectual aspects of human life, is featured against a filigree of olive branches.
For further information, please visit the committee roster page (login required) or the staff contact page.
Award Recipients
2023:
Winner: “The World Atlas of Trees and Forests: Exploring Earth’s Forest Ecosystems“ written by Herman Shugart, Peter White, Sassan Saatchi, and Jérôme Chave, and published by Princeton University Press.
Honorable Mention: Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd Edition (Oxford University Press)
Honorable Mention: Hummingbirds: A Celebration of Nature’s Jewels (Princeton University Press)
Honorable Mention: Fabric: Hidden History of the Material World (Pegasus Books)
Honorable Mention: Indigenous Firsts: A History of Native American Achievement and Events (Visible Ink Press)
2022:
Winner: “The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails“ edited by David Wondrich with Noah Rothbaum and published by Oxford University Press.
Honorable Mention: Dictionary of Southern Appalachian English (University of North Caroline Press)
Honorable Mention: Habitats of the World: A Field Guide for Birders, Naturalists, and Ecologists (Princeton University Press)
2021:
Winner: “The Cold War: The Definitive Encyclopedia and Document Collection“ edited by Spencer C. Tucker and published by ABC-CLIO.
Honorable Mention: Daily Life of Women: An Encyclopedia from Ancient Times to the Present (Greenwood)
Honorable Mention: A Beachcomber’s Guide to Fossils (University of Georgia Press)
Honorable Mention: Spiders of the World: A Natural History (Princeton University Press)
2020:
Winner: “Global Encyclopedia of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) History” published by Gale, a Cengage Company.
Honorable Mention: Black Baseball, 1858-1900
Honorable Mention: Disability Experiences: Memoirs, Autobiographies, and Other Personal Narratives
Honorable Mention: Sir Banister Fletcher’s Global History of Architecture (21st ed.)
2019:
Winner: “Marine Fishes of Arctic Canada” published by University of Toronto Press.
Honorable Mention: “Beetles: The Natural History and Diversity of Coleoptera”
Honorable Mention: “TESOL Encyclopedia of English Language Teaching”
2018:
Winner: “The Music of Central Asia” published by Indiana University Press and edited by Theodore Levin, Saida Daukeyeva, and Elmira Köchümkulova.
Honorable Mention: “The International Encyclopedia of Geography: People, the Earth, Environment, and Technology” by Wiley and the American Association of Geographers and edited by Douglas Richardson
Honorable Mention: “The Atlas of Ancient Rome” by Princeton University Press and edited by Andrea Carandini
2017:
Winner: Encyclopedia of Embroidery from the Arab World published by Bloomsbury Academic and edited by Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood.
Honorable Mention: Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro-Latin American Biography published by Oxford University Press and edited by Franklin W. Knight and Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
2016
Winner: Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Law (Brent Strawn, editor-in-chief, Oxford University Press)
Honorable Mention: Worldmark Global Business and Economy Issues (Thomas Riggs, editor, Gale.)
2015
Winner: Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism (Princeton University Press)
2014
Winner: Mammals of Africa (Bloomsbury)
Honorable Mention: International Encyclopedia of Ethics (Wiley-Blackwell)
Honorable Mention: Encyclopedia of Caribbean Religions (University of Illinois Press)
2013
Winner: Dictionary of American Regional English (Belknap Press)
Honorable Mention: The Encyclopedia of Ancient History (Wiley-Blackwell)
2012
Winner: Green’s Dictionary of Slang (Chambers)
Honorable Mention: International Encyclopedia of Political Science (Sage Reference in association with the International Political Science Association)
Lifetime Achievement Award: Statistical Abstract of the United States (United States Department of Commerce)
2011
Winner: Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion and the online Berg Fashion Library (Bloomsbury)
Honorable Mention: Atlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade (Yale University Press)
2010
Winner: Encyclopedia of Human Rights (Oxford University Press)
Honorable Mention: The Encyclopedia of Modern China (Gale) and The Encyclopedia of Journalism (Sage)
2009
Winner: Pop Culture Universe (Greenwood)
Honorable Mention: The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe ed. Gershon David Hundert (Yale University Press)
2008
Winner: Oxford Encyclopedia of Maritime History (Oxford University Press)
2007
Winner: Encyclopaedia Judaica, Fred Skolnik, ed.-in-chief (Thomson Gale)
Honorable Mention: Historical Statistics of the United States: Earlier Times to the Present, Millenial Edition (Cambridge University Press)
2006
Winner: Encyclopedia of the Documentary Film (Routledge/Taylor & Francis)
Honorable Mention: The Oxford Encyclopedia of Latinos & Latinas in the United States (Oxford University Press)
2005
Winner: The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press)
2004
Winner: Encyclopedia of Food and Culture (Charles Scribner’s Sons)
Honorable Mention: Holocaust Literature: An Encyclopedia of Writers and Their Work (Routledge)
2003
Winner: Garland Encyclopedia of World Music (Routledge)
2002
Winner: The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt (Oxford University Press)
Honorable Mention: New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (Grove’s Dictionaries, 2001)
2001
Winner: Women in World History (Gale Group)
Honorable Mention: Encyclopedia of the American Civil War (ABC-CLIO, 2000) and Encyclopedia of Forensic Sciences (Academic Press, 2000)
2000
Winner: Encyclopedia of the Renaissance (Scribner’s)
Honorable Mention: Encyclopedia of Electrical & Electronics Engineering (Wiley), International Dictionary of Black Composers (Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers), and The Oxford Companion to Food (Oxford University Press)
1999
Winner: American National Biography (Oxford Univ. Pr.), eds. John A. Garraty & Mark C. Carnes
Honorable Mention: International Encyclopedia of Dance (Oxford University Press); Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Rooutledge); The Columbia Gazetteer of the World (Columbia University Press)
1998
Winner: Jewish Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia (Routledge)
Honorable Mention: Encyclopedia of Africa: South of the Sahara (Charles Scribner’s Sons); The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music: Africa (Garland); Encyclopedia Judaica on CD-ROM (Judaica Multimedia)
1997
Winner: The Dictionary of Art (Groves Dictionaries)
Honorable Mention: Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History (Macmillan Reference); The Middle Ages: An Encyclopedia for Students (Charles Scribner’s Sons); Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture (Charles Scribners Sons)
1996
Winner: Civilizations of the Ancient Near East (Macmillan Library Reference/Charles Scribner’s Sons)
Honorable Mention: Encyclopedia of Bioethics (Macmillan); Encyclopedia of New York City (Yale University Press)
1995
Winner: Encyclopedia of the American Presidency (Simon & Schuster)
Honorable Mention: Encyclopedia of the Musical Theatre (Schirmer Books)
1994
Winner: Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia (Carlson Pub)
Honorable Mention: Encyclopedia of American History (Charles Scribner’s Sons)
1993
Winner: Encyclopedia of Sociology (Macmillan, 1992)
Honorable Mention: The Oxford Companion to the English Language (Oxford University Press, 1992)
1992
Winner: Atlas of United States Environmental Issues (Macmillan, 1990)
Honorable Mention: The Reader’s Companion to American History (Houghton Mifflin, 1991)
1991
Winner: Encyclopedia of the Holocaust (Macmillan, 1989)
Honorable Mention: Art Across America: Two Centuries of Regional Painting, 1710-1920 (Abbeville Press, 1990).
1990
Winner: Encyclopedia of Southern Culture (The University North Carolina Press, 1989)
Honorable Mention: The Dictionary of the Middle Ages, Joseph Strazer, ed. (Scribners, 1989)
1989: We the People: An Atlas of America’s Diversity (Macmillan, 1988)
1988: The Encyclopedia of Religion (Macmillan, 1987)
1987: The Encyclopedia of the American Constitution (Macmillan, 1986)
1986: The International Encyclopedia of Education: Research and Studies (Pergamon Press, 1985)
1985: Wilsonline (The H. W. Wilson Company)
1984: The Times Atlas of the Oceans (Van Nostrand, 1983)
1983: Congressional Information Service, Inc., for “The body of its reference works which provide exceptional access to current and retrospective publications of the United States Government and to statistical publications from a wide variety of sources.”
1982: New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Stanley Sadie, ed. (Stockton Press, 1980)
1981: Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Charles B. Gillispie, ed. (Scribners, 1981)
1980: No award
1979: The Encyclopedia of Bioethics, Warren Reich, ed.-in-chief (Free Press, 1978)
1978: International Encyclopedia of Psychiatry, Psychology, Psychoanalysis and Neurology, Benjamin B. Wolman, ed.-in-chief (Van Nostrand for Aesculapius, 1977)
1977: Atlas of Early American History: The Revolutionary Era, 1760-1790, Lester J. Cappon, ed. (Princeton University Press for the Newberry Library and the Institute of Early American History and Culture, 1975)
1976: No award presented
1975: New England Board of Higher Education for establishing NASIC, Northeast Academic Science Information Center, a regional experiment in the brokerage of information services