History
'This annual Award for excellence in referencing and research, honours Miss Margaret Medcalf OAM, the second State Archivist for Western Australia (from 1971 to 1989), for her valuable contribution to the development of archives in Western Australia. Works nominated for the Award must demonstrate use of archival sources, and substantial (but not necessarily exclusive) use of State Archives held by the State Records Office.'
The 2006 award was postponed to 2007.
Notes
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'The Margaret Medcalf Award is presented annually by the State Records Office of Western Australia for works published or completed in the previous calendar year which display excellence in referencing and research using archives. The award is named in honour of the second State Archivist, for her valuable contribution to the development of archives in Western Australia.'
Source: State Records Office of Western Australia website, http://www.sro.wa.gov.au/
Sighted: 01/11/2011
Latest Winners / Recipients
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Year: 2018
joint winner y
Agents of Empire : How E.L. Mitchell’s Photographs Shaped Australia
North Melbourne
:
Australian Scholarly Publishing
,
2017
11666012
2017
multi chapter work
criticism
'For nearly 100 years, E.L. Mitchell’s emblematic photographs have shaped ideas about Australia. But who was Mitchell and why did he succeed above his competitors?
'With unprecedented access to private collections and showcasing his extraordinary photographs, Agents of Empire charts Mitchell’s rise from his struggles as a migrant in New South Wales and Queensland to significant image-maker in Western Australia. It then follows the journeys of individual photographs across the world, and traces the stories behind the survival and destruction of parts of his archive.
'Agents of Empire breaks new ground in showing ways that photographs can be used as historical evidence and how archives can shape our understanding of the past.' (Publication summary)
joint winner Leigh Straw for After the War: Returned Soldiers and the Mental and Physical Scars of World War 1 (Monograph published by UWA Publishing) -
Year: 2017
winner Criena Fitzgerald for Turning Men Into Stone: a social and medical history of silicosis in Western Australia 1890-1970 (Monograph published by Hesperian Press) -
Year: 2014
winner Penelope Hetherington for The Marriage Knot: Marriage & divorce in colonial Western Australia 1829–1900 (Monograph published by UWA Publishing) -
Year: 2012
winner Fiona Skyring for Justice: a history of the Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia (Monograph) -
Year: 2011
winner y
Murdering Stepmothers : The Execution of Martha Rendell
Crawley
:
UWA Publishing
,
2010
Z1696240
2010
single work
biography
'Sensational rumours of the murder of three small children by their stepmother ignite the passions of Perth citizens in 1909.
Shocked by horrific descriptions of how she poisoned the children, they demand her execution as one voice. But did she do it? Or was she a victim of the prejudices of her persecutors?
Anna Haebich brings to life the people of Perth and the entangled mesh of self-righteous bigotry, slander and unbridled revenge they invoke to propel the trial of Martha Rendell to its inevitable end.
We see the accused woman's downward spiral from her dreams of a new beginning with her lover to a life of domestic drudgery and deceits; then her final days on the edge of the abyss - becoming the last woman in the state to be hanged.
Based on a true story and meticulously researched, this compelling novel is driven by passion, imagination and an eerie conjuring up of the past.' (From the publisher's website.)
