Arline Custer Memorial Award

DEADLINE: July 31, 2025 

The Arline Custer Memorial Award  is presented by the MARAC Arline Custer Memorial Award Committee. This award honors the memory of Arline Custer (1909-1975), MARAC member and editor of the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections.

Eligibility

The Arline Custer Memorial Award recognizes the best books and articles written or compiled by individuals and institutions in the MARAC region - the District of Columbia, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia.

Works under consideration include, but are not limited to, monographs, popular narratives, reference works and exhibition catalogs using archival sources.

Individuals or institutions may submit up to two works published between July 1, 2024 and June 30, 2025.

Evaluation

Works must be relevant to the general public as well as the archival community. They also should be original and well-researched using available sources. In addition, they should be clearly presented, well-written and organized. Visual materials, if used, should be appropriate to the text.

Compiled works or works with multiple authors—such as edited volumes, co-authored works, or journals—will be reviewed in their entirety. Portions of a multiple-author work that do not meet award requirements may impact the submission’s final scoring.

Preference will be given to works by archivists.

Award

Up to three awards may be given, with a maximum value of $200.00 for books and $100.00 for articles. The 2025 award(s) will be announced at the Fall 2025 business meeting.

Electronic Submission Instructions

Please send a PDF of the entirety of the work along with a PDF of a letter of nomination to the Senior Co-Chair (2025-2026) of the Arline Custer Memorial Award Committee: Sarah E. Almond at [email protected].

Physical Submission Instructions

Please send two physical copies of each submission with a letter of nomination to the Senior Co-Chair (2025-2026) of the Arline Custer Memorial Award Committee. Please email the Senior Co-Chair, Sarah E. Almond at [email protected] to request the mailing address. 

Award Winners

The Arline Custer Memorial Award recognizes the best books, articles, and exhibition catalogues published by MARAC members and other individuals and institutions in the District of Columbia, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia.

2025
Book Award Winner:
Ian Andrew Isherwood for The Battalion: Citizen Soldier at War on the Western Front

Article Award Winner:
Kristen Nyitray and Dana Reijerkerk for “Archivists and Emotional Labor: Preserving Personas and Personal Identities in Archives”

2024
Book Award Winner: 
Laura E. Helton for Scattered and Fugitive Things: How Black Collectors Created Archives and Remade History

Article Award Winner:
Katherine Lukaszewicz for "Finding Father Mollinger: the Historiography of a Catholic Priest"

2023
Book Award Winners:
Kelly Hayes McAlonie for Louise Blanchard Bethune: Every Woman Her Own Architect
Aaron Purcell for As Wolves upon a Sheep Fold: The Civil War Letters of Ohio Surgeon William S. Newton 

Article Award Winner:
Mary Schreiner for “Realities of Life in an Institution: Dispelling Misconceptions of Disability” 

2022
Book Award Winner:
Allison Finkelstein for Forgotten Veterans, Invisible Memorials: How American Women Commemorated the Great War, 1917-1945

Article Award Winner:
Rob Schoberlein for "When Harry Met Elsey: Madness, Power, and Justice in Federal Era Baltimore"

2021
Book Award Winner:
Mary Rizzo for Come and be Shocked: Baltimore beyond John Waters and The Wire

Article Award Winner:
Frank Vitale for  “Counting Carlisle’s Casualties: Defining Student Death at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, 1879– 1918”

For the complete list of Arline Custer Memorial Award recipients, visit MARAC Master List of Achievement and Service Award Winners. Use tabs at the bottom of the workbook to navigate between awards.

Last revised November 2025