2004 Robert M. Vogel Prize

2004 Robert M. Vogel Prize Winner - Philip Lord, Jr (right) with Rick Greenwood (left)

Photograph by Perry Green

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Robert M. Vogel Prize Committee member Rick Greenwood made this year’s presentation on behalf of the committee chair, Tim Tumberg, who could not attend. (The following is from Mr Tumberg’s prepared text.)

"Although this award has been presented every year except one since 1982, this year marks only the third presentation of the Robert M. Vogel Prize. For the first two decades of its existence, the award was called the Norton Prize, thanks to the sponsorship of the abrasives manufacturing company from Worcester, MA. After the Norton Co. decided to discontinue their financial support of the award in 2001, the SIA Board quite rightly opted to rename the prize in honor of Robert M. Vogel, in recognition of his role as one of the Founding Fathers of the SIA and of his many contributions to the society.

"As most of you are probably aware, this award is given annually to the author (or authors) of the outstanding scholarly article published in IA: The Journal of the Society for Industrial Archeology over the past three years. Current guidelines stipulate that: "articles under consideration must have a clearly stated thesis, a well constructed narrative, and an understandable conclusion. The analysis of material culture plays an important role in articles considered for the prize, as does the use of high_quality illustrations." I would like to thank committee members Larry Gross, Rick Greenwood, David Landon, and Lance Metz for their thoughtful analyses of the articles under consideration for this year's prize. After several rounds of deliberation, the committee selected Philip Lord Jr.'s article titled "The Covered Locks of Wood Creek" as the winner of the 2004 Vogel Prize.

"Lord's article is a seminal research piece that interprets the early beginnings of navigation improvements in the United States. As historian George Rogers Taylor has made clear, the industrial revolution in the US could not have been possible without the earlier transportation revolution. The earliest component of this is the creation of river improvements and towpath canals. Perhaps the most important focal point of these waterway improvements was the Hudson- Mohawk Corridor in New York State. This region was the only water level geographic gap in the Appalachian Mountains which separated the East Coast from the fertile lands around the Great Lakes and Mid-West. As such the Hudson-Mohawk Corridor attracted the attention of entrepreneurs and engineers and became the cradle of America's canal era. These conclusions are accredited to Philip Lord using the best available historical and archaeological research tempered with his many years of experience exploring this area.

"Without further ado, Philip Lord please come forward to receive the 2004 Robert M. Vogel Prize.

The assembled members applauded Mr Lord who came to the podium to receive the prize and commemorative foundry pattern display. He thanked the society, adding that he was very pleasantly surprised by the award and was glad that the notice wasn’t e-mail spam or a prank phone call. He was glad to hear the quality of the papers given at the morning sessions today. His first job was in Providence in 1962 collecting information for the city directory. He retired from the New York State Museum 18 months ago to continue teaching. Out of all the things he has published, he said the article which won the award is the one of which he is the most proud because of the quality of the SIA Journal and its audience.

Each year the SIA recognizes outstanding scholarship within the field of industrial archeology with the Robert M. Vogel Prize. The award honors the author of the best article to appear in the Society's journal, I.A., within the past three years. Articles under consideration must have a clearly stated thesis, a well constructed narrative, and an understandable conclusion. The analysis of material culture plays an important role in articles considered for the prize, as does the use of high-quality illustrations.

The award consists of a cash award and a historic wooden foundry pattern and plaque engraved with the recipient's name.

About Robert M. Vogel

Robert M. Vogel laid the foundations for the Society for Industrial Archeology. He was among the original founders of the SIA and sustained the organization in its earliest years. As the first editor of the Society for Industrial Archeology Newsletter, from 1971 to 1979, Robert stamped the SIA with his distinctive good humor and unbridled enthusiasm for industrial heritage preservation. In the 1960s, his seminal work on the New England textile mill and Hudson-Mohawk Valley surveys established important benchmarks for field recording and documentation, and led to the establishment of the Historic American Engineering Record. As an authority in the field and longtime curator of civil and mechanical engineering at the Smithsonian Institution, Robert generously shared his knowledge, inspiring countless others to champion, as he did so vigorously, the cause of "IA." For these reasons and others, the SIA was pleased to name its annual prize for outstanding scholarship in industrial archeology in his honor.

History of the Award (extracted from SIAN Vol. 31/3-4 written by David Simmons)

Since its earliest days, the SIA has striven to promote high scholarship. When the idea for a prize emerged in the early 1980s, then SIA President Ted Penn set about beating the bushes to find a sponsor. Eventually, the Norton Co., the abrasives manufacturer based in Worcester, MA, agreed to fund the Norton Prize for the best article published in IA over the previous three years. First awarded in 1982, the prize included a check for $100. Later the prize winners and the titles of their essays were listed on the back cover of IA.

What had seemed noteworthy as a monetary prize in 1982, seemed paltry by 1997. At the annual conference in Houghton that year, outgoing Norton Prize chairman, Carter Litchfield, approached next year's chairman, David Simmons, to discuss the possibility of augmenting the check with a physical award. As it happened later that same fall, the Montgomery County Historical Society of Dayton, OH, announced the sale of a large number of wooden foundry patterns donated to them by a local company, the Platt Foundry. Simmons selected and purchased fifty patterns, measuring about 14 x 18 inches each, envisioning that this would be fifty years worth of awards (although not anticipating the possibility of an award to dual authors as has proven to be the case). The first of the new physical awards was given in 1998.

After repeated reorganizations, the Norton Co. had lost interest in supporting the award. In 2001, the SIA Board of Directors decided that rather than seeking a new corporate sponsor, it would be most fitting to rename the award in honor of Robert M. Vogel in recognition of his role as one of the original founders of the SIA and of his many contributions to the society. The renaming has also prompted several members to make unsolicited contributions in support of the monetary prize, which has been raised to $250.

Past Winners

1982 - Laurence F. Gross, "The Importance of Research Outside the Library: Watkins Mill, a Case Study."

1983 - C. C. Cooper, R. B. Gordon and H. V. Merrick, "Archeological Evidence of Metallurgical Innovation at the Eli Whitney Armory."

1984 - Bruce Seely, "Blast Furnace Technology in the Mid 19th-Century: A Case Study of the Adirondack Iron & Steel Company."

1985 - Terry S. Reynolds, "The Soo Hydro: A Case Study of the Influence of Managerial and Topographical Constraints on Engineering Design."

1986 - R. B. Gordon and M. S. Raber, "An Early American Integrated Steelworks."

1987 - Robert W. Passfield, "The Role of the Historian in Reconstructing Historic Engineering Structures: Parks Canada's Experience on the Rideau Canal, 1976-1983."

1988 - David R. Starbuck, "The Shaker Mills in Canterbury, New Hampshire."

1989 - Patrick M. Malone, "Little Kinks and Devices at Springfield Armory, 1892-1918."

1990 - Laurence F. Gross, "Building on Success: Lowell Mill Construction and Its Results."

1991 - Richard M. Candee "The 1822 Allendale Mill and Slow-Burning Construction: A Case Study in the Transmission of an Architectural Technology"

1992 - Thomas E. Leary "The Work of Rolling Rails in the 32" Mill at Bethlehem Steel's Lackawanna Plant: Industrial Archeology and Labor History"

1994 - Thomas E. Leary "Men and Tongs: The Belgian Rod Mill at the Washburn Wire Company, East Providence, Rhode Island"

1995 - David A. Simmons "Bridges and Boilers: Americans Discover the Wrought-Iron Tubular Bowstring Bridge"

1996 - Mary Rose Boswell "Documenting Laconia's Knitting Mills: A Comparison of Belknap Mills Corporation and Two Present-Day Knitting Mills"

1997 - Robert B. Gordon "Material Evidence of Ironmaking Techniques"

1998 - Terry S. Reynolds "Good Engineering, Poor Management: The Battle Creek Hydroelectric System and the Demise of the Northern California Power Company"

1999 - David B. Landon, Timothy A. Tumburg "Archeological Perspectives on the Diffusion of Technology: An Example from the Ohio Trap Rock Mine Site"

2000 - David A. Simmons "The Continuous Clatter': Practical Field Riveting"

2001 - John K. Brown "When Machines Become Gray and Drawings Black and White: William Sellars and the Rationalization of Mechanic Engineering (Vol. 25, No. 2)

2002 - David Salay "... as important and vital to successful mining, as the sap is to the tree: The Dorrance Colliery Fan Complex, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

2003 - Richard Veit’s "Moving Beyond the Factory Gates: The Industrial Archeology of New Jersey’s Terra Cotta Industry," published in IA Vol. 25, No. 2 (1999), pp. 5-28.

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