James H. Ducker Historian of the Year

The James H. Ducker Historian of the Year award is given to an Alaska resident for publication of important new material about Alaska history during the past year. This award was initiated in 1974 and in 2015 was renamed to recognize historian James Ducker who edited the Society’s scholarly journal for 30 years. The award is not given every year. It includes a cash prize.

2023
Ian Hartman and David Reamer, Black Lives in Alaska: A History of African Americans in the Far Northwest
2022
Tom Kizzia, Cold Mountain Path: The Ghost Town Decades of McCarthy-Kennecott, Alaska
2020
Thomas Alton, Alaska in the Progressive Age: A Political History 1896 to 1916
2018
Mary F. Ehrlander, Walter Harper, Alaska Native Son
2016
Stephen Haycox, Battleground Alaska: Fighting Federal Power in America’s Last Wilderness
2015
Charles Caldwell Hawley, A Kennecott Story: Three Mines, Four Men, and One Hundred Years-1897-1997
2013
Tom Walker, The Seventy Mile Kid
2011
Terrence Cole
2009
Willie Iggiagruk Hensley, Fifty Miles From Tomorrow:  A Memoir of Alaska and the Real People
2008
M. J. (Mark) Kirchhoff, Jack Dalton:  The Alaska Pathfinder
2007
Jane G. Haigh, Searching for Fannie Quigley and King Con
2006
Patricia Roppel, Striking It Rich:  Gold Mining in Southern Southeast Alaska
2005
Robert Fortuine
2004
Lydia T. Black
2003
Steve Haycox
2001
Ann Fienup-Riordan
1999
Jim Rearden
1998
Lael Morgan
1997
Elva R. Scott
1996
Elizabeth A. Tower
1995
James H. Ducker
1994
Dan O’Neill
1993
M. J. Kirchhoff
1992
John H. Cloe
1991
Ann Fienup-Riordan
1990
Robert Fortuine
1989
Richard A. Pierce
1988
O.W. “Jack” Frost
1986
Terrence Cole
1983
William S. Hanable
1982
Lone E. Janson
1980
Claus-M. Naske
1979
Isabel Miller
1977
Patricia Roppel
1976
William R. Hunt
1975
Evangeline Atwood
1974
Robert N. DeArmond