Robert M. Vogel Prize - Society for Industrial Archeology

The Robert M. Vogel Prize

2003 Robert M. Vogel Prize Winner - Richard Veit (right) with Pat Martin (left)

Photograph by Perry Green

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This year’s prize committee was chaired by Bob Frame, and Pat Martin made the following presentation prepared by Mr. Frame:

"This presentation in 2003 marks the second year of the "Robert M. Vogel Prize," in which the original Norton Prize was re-christened in honor of Robert M. Vogel, who has done so much for industrial archeology and for this organization.

"The Vogel Prize recognizes "the outstanding scholarly article in the Society’s journal, IA, over the past three years," just as the first Norton Prize announcement put it.

"The Prize committee members serve rotating five-year terms, with the chair rotating off the committee after the selection process is complete. Let us acknowledge the committee members, whose commitment to this difficult task has been impressive and very good-natured. They are

Bob Frame, committee chair
Tim Tumberg, incoming chair for 2004
Larry Gross
Rick Greenwood

"It is worth noting that one member of the committee, Larry Gross, received the very first Norton Prize in 1982 for his article: "The Importance of Research Outside the Library: Watkins Mill, A Case Study." Larry’s piece is worth noting because it set the standard for prize selection ever since, and the IA essence of that standard is captured in his title: "The Importance of Research Outside the Library."

"Here’s how it works. The committee looks for a clearly stated thesis, a well-constructed narrative, an understandable conclusion, high-quality illustrations, and—this is significant—an effective analysis of material culture. After discussion and deliberation, the committee is pleased to announce the winner of the 2003 Vogel Prize:

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.

"In his article, Richard Veit deals with the use of an industrial product, architectural terra cotta—a building material—and the industrial process that created it. His story begins with the raw material, Cretaceous clay, which is found in a broad swath across central New Jersey known as the Clay District, centered around the city of Perth Amboy. It is happens that 12 miles from Perth Amboy, by boat, is Manhattan, site of countless buildings using the Clay District’s terra cotta output between the 1870s and 1930s. Thus does Veit trace the journey of this humble substance, clay—from its mining to its monumental final use in, among other things, the 750-foot white terra cotta Woolworth Building.

"In the course of working this out, we learn of the production process at New Jersey’s many terra cotta factories, all now gone. We also learn of the factory workers in this technologically straightforward and labor-intensive industry. The terra cotta workers came from the region’s largely immigrant population, which consumed one of the industry’s more unusual products: the terra cotta gravemarker. The terra cotta gravemarker is the artifact that first piqued Veit’s interest. The poorer citizens of the Clay District knew what Manhattan’s architects learned, that terra cotta could be an inexpensive alternative to stone. From their native clay, they produced a wide range of creative and colorful markers for their cemeteries, providing Veit with artifacts that he studied from many angles.

"All together, Veit offers us a complex picture of a simple material from an industrial archeological perspective. He provides multi-dimensional analysis using wide-ranging resources, the most significant of which truly exemplify "the importance of research outside the library."

Mr Martin invited Mr. Veit to come forward to receive the cash award. The physical award is a wooden foundry pattern with a plaque engraved with his name and the title "The Robert M. Vogel Prize."

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.

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 prize 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.

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."

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

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"

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"

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.