The Chester P. Middlesworth Awards

The Middlesworth Awards have been established to encourage and recognize excellence of research, analysis, and writing by Duke University students in the use of primary sources and rare materials held by the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library of Duke University.  The awards are granted annually to the authors of the best undergraduate and graduate student papers based largely on materials from the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library.  Funding for the awards has been provided by Chester P. Middlesworth (A.B., 1949) of Statesville, North Carolina.

Awards

The two awards, one for an undergraduate and one for a graduate student, will each carry a cash prize of $1000.00.  In addition, other submissions will be eligible for a runner up prize in each category.  The committee reserves the right to declare a tie and split the pooled prizes between two authors in a category or, in the absence of suitable submissions, to make fewer awards.

Submissions

Papers must have been prepared to meet requirements of a course in any academic department at Duke University or of an independent study project for credit at Duke University.  They may take the form of an analytical or creative essay or of a research paper.  Edited, annotated versions of one or more documents with a narrative introduction are also acceptable.  To be considered for the award a paper must be based largely or wholly on sources in the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library and must be nominated by a faculty member.  Faculty should use this nomination form to nominate a student for these awards.

There is no minimum or maximum length requirement for papers.  All papers must be formatted double-spaced with standard margins.  One clean copy (without writer’s name, course, professor, grade, or marginal notes), accompanied by a completed faculty nomination form, must be submitted to the Director of Research Services, Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, 103 Perkins.  Awards will be made each fall for papers submitted for courses or credits taken during the previous academic year.  Deadline for submissions is May 15.

Selection

Papers will be judged by a committee consisting of the Director of the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library and two faculty members.  In evaluating the papers, they will look especially at degree and effectiveness of the author’s use of Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections materials.  Other criteria will include originality, quality of analysis and interpretation, clarity and persuasiveness of the paper’s thesis, excellence of writing style, integration of research findings with broader scholarship, and thoroughness of documentation.