Updated 4 February 2025
It is now possible to nominate essays for the 2025 Martha Trescott Prize. The deadline for submissions is 15 April 2025.
Nominate an essay for the Martha Trescott Prize
The Martha Trescott Prize was announced in the beginning of 2020 by the Society for the History of Technology. The award consists of a $500 check and a certificate. The winner will be honored during the Society’s Awards Ceremony.
Martha Trescott was one of the pioneering spirits behind Women in Technological History (WITH). She wished to honor Frances McConnell Moore, Carroll Pursell, and Edwin T. Layton, Jr., with this prize.
The Martha Trescott Prize will be given annually for the best published essay in one of two areas. In even-numbered years (2024, 2026), the prize will be awarded to an outstanding published historical essay in the area of women in technology. In odd-numbered years (2025, 2027), the prize will be awarded to an outstanding published essay in the area of social responsibility of engineers in history.
Essays published in any of the four years preceding the award will be eligible; that is, for the 2025 prize, eligible essays will have to been published in 2021, 2022, 2023 or 2024. “Published essay” is understood to be a scholarly article, chapter in a published book, or other ‘long-form’ essay contribution. An essay can be nominated for the prize by a colleague or by the author.
To nominate an essay for the prize, please submit the nomination materials to the established prize portal on the SHOT website. A valid nomination will consist of a complete citation to the published essay, a scanned or downloaded PDF copy of the essay, and a brief 100-200 word description of its worthiness for that year’s prize.
For more information contact the SHOT secretariat at [email protected]
Nina Lerman (2023-2025), Chair
Laura Ettinger (2022-2024)
Aileen Fyfe (2024-2026)
2024
Camilla Mørk Røstvik, “Tampon Technology in Britain: Unilever’s Project Hyacinth and the ‘7-Day War’ Campaign, 1968–1980.” Technology and Culture 63, no. 1 (2022): 61–86.
2023
Owain Lawson, “A National Vocation: Engineering Nature and State in Lebanon’s Merchant Republic,” Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, vol. 40, no. 1, May 2021, p. 71–87.
2022
Kara Swanson, “Inventing the Woman Voter: Suffrage, Ability, and Patents,” Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era (volume 19 (2020): 559-574).
2021
Amy Sue Bix, “Mastering the Hard Stuff: The History of College Concrete-Canoe Races and the Growth of Engineering Competition Culture.” Engineering Studies, July 2019, v. 11 (2): 109-134.
2020
Laura Ettinger, Nicole Conroy & William Barr II, “What Late-Career and Retired Women Engineers Tell Us: Gender Challenges in Historical Context,” Engineering Studies, 11,3 (2019) 217–242; https://doi.org/10.1080/19378629.2019.1663201.