Society for the History of Natural History Book Prize 2026
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.
SHNH Natural History Book Prize 2024
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
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