THE DAVID MCCULLOUGH PRIZE FOR EXCELLENCE IN AMERICAN PUBLIC HISTORY
David McCullough in Carpenters’ Hall. Photo Credit: Laura Clevenger
About the McCullough Prize
The McCullough Prize is awarded to key leaders and thinkers in the public history world. The award was first announced in June 2018, and first awarded on October 16th, 2020 to Lonnie Bunch, the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and the Founding Director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, and to Francine Gold, history teacher at Philadelphia’s Constitution High School. A portion of the ceremony’s proceeds supported the history program at the school.
The goal of the McCullough Prize is to celebrate people whose work increases the public’s understanding of American history and to expand awareness of the important role that Carpenters’ Hall played in the founding of our nation. The esteemed historian David McCullough, who has called Carpenters’ Hall “the acorn of American democracy,” graciously lent his name to the prize and personally announced its establishment in 2018 at Carpenters’ Hall.
The McCullough Prize for Teaching is awarded to an educator or educators from the Philadelphia region who have demonstrated outstanding achievements in history, social studies, or political science.
Previous Recipients
The 2021 McCullough Prize was awarded to Bryan Stevenson, Founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative, on November 9th, 2021 at 5:30 PM in Carpenters’ Hall. Stevenson is a widely acclaimed public interest lawyer who has dedicated his career to helping the poor, the incarcerated, and the condemned. His legal work on behalf of wrongly incarcerated prisoners and his tireless efforts to record and interpret the history of lynching is recounted in the award-winning book and feature film Just Mercy. Stevenson’s story has inspired thousands and made him a nationally significant figure in the country’s ongoing effort to ensure that all Americans enjoy the founding principles of our democracy. A second McCullough Prize for Teaching will be given to the Philadelphia Black History Collaborative. This award was accepted on behalf of the Philadelphia Black History Collaborative by its co-founders Ismael Jimenez and Yaasiyn Muhammad. You can watch a recording of the ceremony below.
On April 26th, 2023, at the Museum of the American Revolution, the 2023 David McCullough Prize was awarded to Christy Coleman, Executive director of the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation. Ms. Coleman is an innovator and leader in the museum field having held leadership roles at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, and the American Civil War Museum. She’s a tireless advocate for the power of museums, narrative correction, diversity and inclusiveness.
About David McCullough
David McCullough has been acclaimed as a "master of the art of narrative history." He was the winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, two National Book Awards, and has received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award.
In the words of the citation accompanying David's honorary degree from Yale: "As an historian, he paints with words, giving us pictures of the American people that live, breathe, and above all, confront the fundamental issues of courage, achievement and moral character."
David published several acclaimed and award-winning books. His 1776 has been acclaimed "a classic", while John Adams, published in 2001, remains a hugely popular book and one of the most widely read American biographies of all time. His other works include The Johnstown Flood, The Great Bridge, The Path Between the Seas, Mornings on Horseback, Brave Companions and Truman. His books have been published in nineteen languages and - as may be said of few other writers - none have ever been out of print. David McCullough is a two-time winner of the Francis Parkman Prize, has been honored with the National Book Foundation's American Letters Award, the National Humanities Medal, and the Gold Medal for Biography given by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
In 2013, his hometown, the city of Pittsburgh, renamed its landmark 16th Street Bridge over the Allegheny River, the David McCullough Bridge. In 2014, David was named an Officer of the Legion of Honor by decree of the President of the Republic of France.
In a crowded and productive career, David has been an editor, teacher, lecturer, and familiar presence and voice on public television, having narrated, among other documentary films, Ken Burns' The Civil War. John Adams, the seven-part docu-drama produced by Tom Hanks and broadcast by HBO, was among the most highly regarded television events of recent memory.
Born in Pittsburgh in 1933, David McCullough was educated there and at Yale University. He passed away in his home in Massachusetts on August 7th, 2022 at the age of 89.