Two annual awards recognize originality, excellence, and creativity in article research and writing. Each bestows a cash prize of $600. Two judges and the Minnesota History editors select the winners.

• The Solon J. Buck Award, named for the magazine’s first editor (1915-31) and, later, United States Archivist, is awarded to the best article of the year.
• The Theodore C. Blegen Award, named for the Minnesota Historical Society’s superintendent (1931-39), is given to the best article written by an MHS staff member (not eligible for the Buck Award).

History Day Award

This award is given to the best senior-division History Day paper written on a Minnesota topic. The award is accompanied by a $50 cash prize. The judges are the editors of Minnesota History.

This year’s theme was “Triumph and Tragedy,” and the winner is Jacob Nelson, an eleventh grader who wrote his paper for a post-secondary enrollment options class in Minnesota history at Saint Paul College.  His essay, “Stained by the Blood of Our Children: The Ojibwa’s Triumph over Bureaucracy following the Sandy Lake Tragedy,” investigates the events and aftermath of what came to be known as the Wisconsin Death March.

2005 Winners

• Solon J. Buck Award: The winner of the Solon J. Buck award for the best article of 2005 is Rae Katherine Eighmey. Her article “Food Will Win the War: Minnesota Conservation Efforts, 1917–18” from the Fall 2005 issue, examines how the state swiftly and, for the most part, successfully designed a far-reaching food-conservation program and persuaded citizens to radically alter their eating habits. Drawing on a wealth of sources from original recipes to letters, news reports, and government documents, Eighmey’s article shines a new light on World War I, illuminating Minnesotans’ domestic experiences during an international crisis.
• Theodore C. Blegen Award: The 2005 Theodore C. Blegen Award goes to MHS acquisitions librarian Patrick Coleman for “A Rare Find: The Treaty of Washington, 1858,” which was published in the Spring 2005 issue. As Coleman says, we may never know how or where this original handwritten document survived before it surfaced and was purchased by the Society, but his article carefully explains the complicated events and negotiations that culminated in a treaty whereby the Yankton Sioux, in his words, ’relinquished more than 11 million acres of their land and, thus, their way of life.”
• Judges:
      • Daniel Pierce Bergin, a filmmaker and producer at Twin Cities Public Television
      • Kate Roberts, senior exhibit developer at the Minnesota Historical Society
      • Anne Kaplan, editor of Minnesota History
      • Gregory Britton, publisher of Minnesota History

2004 Winners

• Solon J. Buck Award: Laura Weber, director of communications at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities General College, for “The House that Bullard Built,” (Summer 2004).
• Theodore C. Blegen Award: Benjamin Filene, senior exhibit developer at the Minnesota Historical Society, for Open House Journal essays “A Vision of History” and “Telling Their Story.&rdquo (Summer and Winter, 2004 or online.)
• History Day: John Carroll for “Exploring the Idea of Two Races Worshipping God Together: The Encounter and Exchanges of Kindness, Good Fellowship, and the Ideas between Border and Hennepin Churches.”

2003 Awards

• Solon J. Buck Award: Annette Atkins, professor of history and Michael Blecker Professor of Humanities at St. John’s University, Collegeville, for ”At Home in the Heart of the City“ (Spring/Summer 2003).
• Theodore C. Blegen Award: Scott F. Anfinson, National Register archaeologist in the State Historic Preservation Office, for “Unearthing the Invisible: Archaeology at the Riverfront” (Spring/Summer 2003).
• History Day: Rose Kantor for “The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Act of 1978: Striking the Balance Between Environmental Rights and Responsibilities.”

2002 Awards

• Solon J. Buck Award: Jim Norris, associate professorof history at North Dakota State University in Fargo, for “Bargaining for Beets: Migrants and Growers in the Red River Valley” (Winter 2002–03).
• Theodore C. Blegen Award: Brian Horrigan, exhibit developer, for “‘My Own Mind and Pen’: Charles Lindbergh, Autobiography, and Memory” (Spring 2002)
• History Day: Anna M. Rice for "General ChristopherC. Andrews: Leading the Minnesota Forestry Revolution." Her paper took first place at National History Day.

2001 Awards

• Solon J. Buck Award: Steve Leikin, lecturer in U.S. history at San Francisco State University, for “The Cooperative Coopers of Minneapolis” (Winter 2001–02).
• Theodore C. Blegen Award: Patty Dean, supervisory curator for museum collections, for “‘It Is Here We Live’: Minneapolis Homes and the Arts and Crafts Movement” (Spring 2001).
• History Day: Michael Anderson for “Minnesota’s John Day Smith Law and the Death Penalty Debate” (Summer 2002).

2000 Awards

• Solon J. Buck Award: Geoffrey Blodgett, professor emeritus of history, Oberlin College, for his article “Cass Gilbert and Julia Finch: Falling in Love in the 1880s” (Spring 2000).
• Theodore C. Blegen Award: Sherri Gebert Fuller, project manager for museum collections, for “Mirrored Identities: The Moys of St. Paul” (Winter 2000-2001) or available online.

Boxing Writers Association awardees, 1953