History Awards

Each year, the Kentucky Historical Society (KHS) sponsors the Kentucky History Awards, recognizing the outstanding achievements of history-related organizations and the people connected with them.  KHS encourages nominations for projects and people who promote the value of Kentucky history through awareness, preservation, and appreciation of state and local history.

Applications for the 2025 Kentucky History Awards are now available. The deadline for nominations has been extended and is now 5:00 pm EST, Friday, March 31, 2025. Please click here to download the packet.

2024 Award Winners

If you attend our annual awards event, you will hear about other award recipients:

Governor's Award

The Office of the Governor and the Kentucky Historical Society jointly present the Governor’s Award award to an author whose book, as judged by a panel of scholars, is deemed to have made the most significant contribution to Kentucky history. The award was established in 1979 and is given every four years in the last year of a governor’s term.

The next award cycle will be in 2027, at the end of the current governor's term. 

The list of all winners is here.

Brigadier General William R. Buster Award

This award was named for Brigadier General William R. Buster, a highly decorated veteran and the former executive director of the Kentucky Historical Society. It is given to an individual who has made a sustained, significant contribution to Kentucky’s military history. Winners of the Buster Award have consistently shown their support for military history and related projects in their communities or across Kentucky. In addition, recipients have frequently initiated military history projects that have brought wide recognition to the Bluegrass State’s military past. Click here for a list of past recipients. 

Richard H. Collins Award

This annual award honors Richard H. Collins, a trailblazing Kentucky historian, and goes to the author of an article from The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society judged to have made the most outstanding contribution to Kentucky history. A panel of historians makes the selection. Find a list of past Collins Award Recipients here.