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Society for the History of Natural History


Awards, Honours and Medals

SHNH Book Prize


Society for the History of Natural History Book Prize 2026

John Thackray Medal

The prize is awarded for the best book published on the history or bibliography of natural history in the preceding two years.

Closing date is 30 June 2026.

Winners receive the John Thackray Medal, instituted in 2000 to commemorate the life and work of John Thackray (1948–1999), Past President of SHNH, and an outstanding scholar of the history of science with an enviable knowledge of natural history. He served as an Officer of the Society for the History of Natural History for 24 years (1973–1997) and in 1999 became the Society’s President. He authored 30 books and articles including Guide to the Official Archives of the Natural History Museum (1998). 

Guidelines

  • Prize winners are chosen by a panel of 3 judges (all members of the Society).
  • Competition opens on 1 January 2026.
  • Nominations may be made by SHNH members, or submitted by publishers.
  • All books must be received by 30 June. Three copies of the book you wish to considered should be sent to the Chair of the Book Prize Panel.  Contact  Geraldine.Reid@liverpoolmuseums.org.uk to obtain the Chair’s name and address.
  • All books should have been published in the two calendar years preceding the year the award will be presented. For instance, works published in 2024 and 2025 will be eligible for the 2026 award.

Selection Criteria

The prize will be awarded to the book which contributes most significantly to the history of natural history. Significance will be assessed on the basis of:

  • Originality
  • Organisation and presentation of information
  • Excellence of intellectual content
  • Contribution to the literature of the field.

Submission

 Nominations must be sent to the Chair of the Book Prize Panel and include the following:

  • Your name as a nominator and your contact details.
  • The nominee’s name and contact details.
  • A supporting statement (up to 600 words) describing why the nominee should receive the award.

Download 2026 nomination form.


SHNH Natural History Book Prize 2024

Malini Roy, Cam Sharp Jones and Cheryl Tipp
SHNH Book Award

The Society is very pleased to announce that our Natural History Book Prize (the John Thackray Medal) will this year be awarded to Malini Roy, Cam Sharp Jones and Cheryl Tipp for Animals. Art, Science and Sound (British Library, 2023, ISBN 9780712354332).

Malini Roy is Head of Visual Arts, Asian and African Collections, Cam Sharp Jones is Curator of Visual Arts, Asian and African Collections and Cheryl Tipp is Curator of Wildlife and Environmental Sounds at the British Library.

Published in conjunction with a 2023 British Library exhibition Animals: Art, Science and Sound, this publication brings together artworks, manuscripts, printed works and wildlife sound recordings which come together in this major compendium of the greatest and strangest representations of animals on record.

Organised into four thematic chapters (Darkness, Water, Land and Air), the book presents eighty detailed case studies highlighting celebrated works. It explores the historical, scientific and artistic importance of each work alongside their provenance and custodial histories, including John James Audubon’s The Birds of America (1827–1838), Matthew Paris’s Liber additamentorum, Maria Sibylla Merian’s Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium (1705), and Mark Catesby’s The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands (1729–1732), as well as letters from Charles Darwin, Japanese printed works by Hirase Yoichirō (1914–1915), Arabic hippiatric texts and the work of contemporary artists including Levon Biss and Jethro Buck.

Rich, newly photographed, illustrations bring these works to life, while interactive QR technology will allow readers to listen to recordings of the sound exhibits as they read. The bringing together of this range of material for the first time helps to highlight how changing technologies have been employed to record those creatures that surround us throughout history and how humanity has always been fascinated by the animal world.

All the judges agreed that the book was outstanding commenting on what an incredible achievement it was to cover so many items in so many mediums in such a readable and informative manner. One of the judges commented on how they had already used the book since reading as a source of reference already on several occasions. The judges liked the format of the book which is divided into four sections – darkness, water, land and air. They felt this beautifully illustrated book represented a celebration of the richness and diversity of historic publications in zoology.

For those interested in reading more about Animals. Art, Science and Sound you can read Zoë Varley’s review in the Society’s Journal, Archives of Natural History.  See https://euppublishing.com/doi/10.3366/anh.2024.0950

 

The Society for the History of Natural History Book Prize

 

  • 2024
Malini Roy, Cam Sharp Jones and Cheryl Tipp Animals. Art, Science and Sound (British Library, 2023)
  • 2023
Nicholas K. Menzies
Ordering the Myriad Things: From Traditional Knowledge to Scientific Botany in China (University of Washington Press, 2021)
  • 2022
Henrietta McBurney
Illuminating natural history: the art and science of Mark Catesby (Paul Mellon Centre for
Studies in British Art, 2021).
  • 2021
Jordan Goodman Planting the World: Joseph Banks and his Collectors: An Adventurous History of Botany (Harper Collins, 2021).
  • 2019
David J. Mabberley Painting by Numbers: The life and art of Ferdinand Bauer
(NewSouth Publishing, 2017).
  • 2017
Anna Marie Roos The Correspondence of Dr Martin Lister (1639-1667). Vol.1: (1662-1667)
(Brill, 2015).
  • 2016
Tom Kennett The Lord Treasurer of Botany: Sir James Edward Smith and the Linnaean Collections  (Linnean Society of London, 2016).
  • 2015
Mary Terrall Catching Nature in the Act: Réaumur and the Practice of Natural History in the Eighteenth Century (University of Chicago Press, 2014).
  • 2014
E. C. Dickinson,
L.K. Overstreet, R. J. Dowsett
& M. D. Bruce
Priority! The Dating of Scientific Names in Ornithology
(Aves Press, 2011).
  • 2013
Alexandra Cook Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Botany: The salutary science
(The Voltaire Foundation, 2012).
  • 2012
Philip H. Oswald & Christopher D. Preston (trans & eds)
John Ray’s Cambridge Catalogue (1660)
(Ray Society, 2011).
  • 2010
The Biodiversity Heritage Library The Biodiversity Heritage Library.
The Biodiversity Heritage Library improves research methodology by collaboratively making biodiversity literature openly available to the world as part of a global biodiversity community.
  • 2009
Charlie Jarvis  Order out of Chaos: Linnaean plant names and their types
(Linnean Society of London, 2007).
  • 2008
University of Cambridge The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online Project
  • 2006
Peter Marren
 The New Naturalists (2nd Edition)
(Collins New Naturalist Library, Book 82) (Collins, 2005).
  • 2005
David E. Allen
& Gabrielle Hatfield
Medicinal Plants in Folk tradition: An ethnobotany of Britain and Ireland
(Timber Press, 2004).
  • 2004
The American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, USA Stuffing Birds, Pressing Plants, Shaping Knowledge: Natural History in North America, 1730-1860. Exhibition, together with web site, catalogue, accompanying educational materials, and programme of school events.
  • 2003
Clemency Fisher
The Earl & the Pussycat Exhibition and associated publication
A Passion for Natural History:The Life and Legacy of the 13th Earl of Derby
(Liverpool University Press, 2002).
  • 2002
T. G. Valance, David T. Moore & Eric W. Groves Nature’s Investigator. The Diary of Robert Brown in Australia, 1801–1805
(Australian Biological Resources Study (Flora), 2001).
  • 2001
Karl Schulze-Hagen
& Amin Geus
 Joseph Wolf. Exhibition and accompanying publication
Joseph Wolf:(1820-1899): Animal Painter / Tiermaler
(Basilisk Press, 2001).
  • 2000
Tony Rice & Natural History Museum, London
Voyages of Discovery. Exhibition and accompanying book
Voyages of Discovery
(Natural History Museum, London, 2001).