This award was established in 2004 to honor Paul A. Stellhorn (1947-2001), who was a distinguished historian and public servant who worked for the New Jersey Historical Commission, the New Jersey Committee (now Council) for the Humanities, and the Newark Public Library. An especially active and effective member of the New Jersey history community, he did much to expand the audience for New Jersey history and was an effective advocate for public history and a vigorous supporter of scholarship and publication about the state’s history. As a program officer and a grants administrator he helped many of our present historians and humanities scholars to achieve their goals, whether as scholars, history agency personnel, or educators. He earned a Ph.D. in American History from Rutgers University with a dissertation about Newark during the era of the Great Depression. He was the author or editor of many works about New Jersey’s past, especially about its urban history.  

In 2023, the New Jersey Studies Academic Alliance changed the name of the award to include the name of Richard "Dick" Waldon, the long-time chair of the committee.  In addition to being the chair of this committee, he was a founding member, treasurer, and winner of the Maxine Lurie Distinguished Service Award of the New Jersey Studies Academic Alliance and former Executive Director of the New Jersey Historical Commission and the American Swedish Historical Museum.  It was noted by an NJSAA member that Paul Stellhorn and Richard Waldron shared an office at the New Jersey Historical Commission for years, so it is only fitting that the two now share an award.

Awards may be given in four categories:

• High School Project in New Jersey Studies

• Undergraduate Research Project in New Jersey Studies 

• Undergraduate Senior Thesis in New Jersey Studies

• Graduate Student Research Project in New Jersey Studies

All award winners will be invited to speak about their work at one of the Alliance’s meetings, and papers will be eligible for publication in the online journal, New Jersey Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal.  High School award winners will receive a certificate.  Undergraduate and Graduate award winners will receive $200.

The Award’s sponsors are the New Jersey Studies Academic Alliance; the New Jersey Historical Commission, New Jersey Department of State; Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University Libraries; and the New Jersey Caucus of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference.

The Stellhorn & Waldon Award Committee members are Carla Cevasco (Chair), Paul Israel, Mark E. Lender, Jonathan Lurie, Peter Mickulas, and Bob Vietgrogoski.

Criteria for the award are listed here.

Student award winners from 2004-2023 are listed here.

Nominations for the Stellhorn & Waldron New Jersey Studies Student Awards are due June 15.

Stellhorn & Waldron New Jersey Studies Student Awards Winners

2024 UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH PROJECT:

Winners:

Mattie Isaac and Angela Allen, Princeton University, “Reverend S. Howard Woodson: Preaching to the Heavens and Serving on Earth”

2024 UNDERGRADUATE THESIS:

Winner:

Maggie Liebich, Princeton University, “American Hunger: The Contested Meaning of Hunger in Trenton and the US Across the 20th Century”

Runners-Up:

Ryan Perrone, The College of New Jersey, “Contested Terrain: African Americans and the Struggle for Adequate Housing in Trenton and Central New Jersey”

Samuel John, The College of New Jersey, “No Color Lines—None Whatsoever: How the Ambiguity of Federal Policy Segregated the Urban Metropolis, 1930-1960”