Houghton Library

Philip Hofer Prize for Collecting Books or Art

Introduction

Tantalus - bookplate for Philip Hofer by Rudolf Ruzicka after a drawing by HolbeinThe Philip Hofer prize is awarded each year to a student whose collection of books or works of art best exemplifies the traditions of breadth, coherence, and imagination represented by Philip Hofer, A.B. '21, L.H.D. '67, founder and first Curator of the Department of Printing and Graphic Arts in the Houghton Library and Secretary of the Fogg Art Museum. For further information about Philip Hofer and the collections he formed for Harvard, see A Catalogue of an Exhibition of the Philip Hofer Bequest in the Department of Printing and Graphic Arts (Cambridge: Harvard College Library, 1988), and "Prince of the Eye: Philip Hofer and the Harvard Library," in Harvard Library Bulletin, vol. 32, no. 4 (Fall 1984), pp. 317-347.

Contest entries are judged on the purpose, consistency, and quality of the collection, and the presentation of the essay and bibliography. The cost and rarity of collection items and the size of the collection are not criteria. The prize, which is to encourage student interest in collecting, was established by Melvin R. Seiden, A.B. '52, L.L.B. '55.

The panel of judges reserves the right to make the award only to candidates whose collections are considered to be of exceptional quality. The first prize brings an award of $2000, second prize $1000, and third prize $500. Winners will also be invited to participate in an awards ceremony in April and to lend representative books or works of art to an exhibition at the library.

For further information, contact Hope Mayo, Philip Hofer Curator of Printing and Graphic Arts in Houghton Library, via e-mail.

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2012-2013 Entry Rules

  • The competition is open to undergraduate and graduate students enrolled at Harvard.
  • To be eligible, collections must have been formed and be owned by the contestant.
  • Collections may be of any kind in the area of books or art. For example, book collections may focus on authors, subjects, bindings, design, illustration, printing techniques, etc. Art collections may focus on painting, sculpture, drawings, prints, photographs, decorative arts, coins, etc.
  • The judges may ask to examine the entire collection or a representative part of it, and may wish to talk informally with the contestants. For this reason, the custom of making prize submissions under pseudonyms is not observed for this contest.
  • Each contestant must submit in writing (hard copy): (a) a cover sheet , (b) an essay of approximately 2,500 words describing the scope, contents, and goal of the collection, and (c) an annotated list or bibliography of not less than 20 or more than 50 items in the collection, selected to illustrate its nature. If the collection is a book or print collection, bibliographical references are suggested. Photographs of unique items are welcome.
  • The same collection cannot be submitted in the same year both to this competition and to the Visiting Committee Prize for Undergraduate Book Collecting. However, different collections may be submitted for the two prizes in the same year, or the same collection may be entered for the other prize in a different year.
  • Entries should be submitted to Hope Mayo, Philip Hofer Curator of Printing and Graphic Arts, Houghton Library.
  • The deadline for submissions in 2012-2013 is February 15, 2013. Winners will be notified in March.

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Past Hofer Prize Winners

2013 Winners

  • First prize ($2000): Matthew Gin, Between West Germany and the World: Design at the 1972 Munich Olympics
  • Second prize ($1000): Margot Leger, Rediscovering The Classic: South African Literary Magazines of the 1960s
  • Second prize ($1000): Samuel Milner, The Cleveland School: Then and Now
  • Third prize ($500): Martin Greenup, My Wars are laid away in Books: Emily Dickinson in Print
  • Third prize ($500): Matthew Alpert, What is a Computer? What is Consciousness? What is Reality?

2012 Winners

  • First prize ($2000): Carla Martin, ‘Nos Lingua, Nos Kultura, Nos Identidadi’ (‘Our Language, Our Culture, Our Identity’): Books in and about Cape Verdean Creole
  • Second prize ($1000): Amaury Milton Berzin, Coins at the Crossroads: The Evolution of the Greek Numismatic Tradition in Pre-Islamic Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India
  • Second prize ($1000): Alexis Harrison, The Dragon's Jug: A Collection of Illustrations of Reptiles and Amphibians on Bottles
  • Third prize ($500): Alexandra Jumper, Children's Books: Juvenile Stories in My Grown-up Life
  • Third prize ($500): Alexis Agliano Sanborn, A Nostalgic Journey: Women, Nature, and Fantasy through Japanese Prints and Paintings

2011 Winners

  • First prize ($2000): Ross Ford, Traveling Art of the British Empire (1884-1947), a Numismatic (Re) Collection


First Place, Philipp Penka

Philipp Penka

2010 Winners

  • First prize ($2000): Philipp Penka, Temporary Spiritual Sustenance: The Print Culture of Russian Displaced Persons in Post-War Germany (1945-1951)
  • Second prize ($1000): Rhae Lynn Barnes, The Print Culture of Blackface Minstrelsy
  • Second prize ($1000): Céline LeBoeuf, A Transatlantic Love Affair: A Collection Dedicated to Simone de Beauvoir
  • Third prize ($500): Elizabeth Gish, Feminist Theologies: Precursors. Foundations, and Innovations
  • Third prize ($500):Andrea C. Rutherford, Adventures in ‘Outsider’ Art: Russia, South Africa, India, Germany, France


First Place, Ilya Leskov

Ilya Leskov

2009 Winners

  • First prize ($2000): Ilya Leskov, Antique Maps of Paris
  • Second prize ($1000): Matthew Zimmerman, Faulkner, the Fugitives, and their Heirs: Twentieth Century Authors of the Tennessee Valley


Second place, Noah Silver

Noah Silver

2008 Winners

  • First prize ($2000): Philip C. Mead, The Art of War in Revolutionary America
  • Second prize ($1000): Noah M. Silver, Figbash and Wild Things: The Illustrations of Edward St. John Gorey and Maurice Sendak


Second place, Grete Viddal

Grete Viddal

First Place, Drew Massey

Drew Massey

2007 Winners

  • First place ($2000): Drew Massey, The Visual Muse: Images of Music and Musicians
  • Second place ($1000): Grete Viddal, Devotional Arts of Haitian Vodou


Third place, Gustavo Turner

Gustavo Turner

First place, Michael Sanchez

Michael Sanchez

2006 Winners

  • First place ($2000): Michael Hayes Sanchez, Artifacts of the Avant-Garde
  • Second place ($1000): Brendan Ritchie, The Hidden Land of Prester John: A Collection of Ethiopica
  • Third place ($500): Gustavo Turner, Felinology
  • Third place ($500): Michael Canfield, The Elephant in the Living Room: Wild Animals in Stereographic Images 1896-1951

2004 Winner

  • First place ($2000): Stephen W. Stromberg, Russian Political Posters: A Collection
First Place, Katherine Olson

Katherine Olson

2002 Winners

  • First place ($1000): Katherine K. Olson, Books about Wales and in Welsh
  • Second place ($500): Michael Canfield, Books on the influence and inspiration of entomology
  • Second place ($500): Trevor Cox, American postage stamps
  • Honorable mention: Patrick Hanley, Ecological images

2000 Winners

  • First place ($2000): Diana Williams, Literary and cultural history of race relations in Louisiana
  • Second place ($500): Daniel Adler, Books on the history of evolution
  • Second place ($500): Jason Vigna, Art and art books

1998 Winners

  • First place ($2000): Krassimira Zourkova, Book collecting in the Absence of Books
  • Honorable Mention: Jared Black, My Books and How I Came by Them
  • Honorable Mention: Kurtis R. Schaeffer, Small Library of Books on Tibetan Studies and Asian Religions
  • Honorable Mention: Danielle Elizabeth Sherrod, Performance and Material Art Forms of the African Diaspora

1996 Winners

  • First place ($2000): Brian Koh, Materials relating to the symphonic conductor Carlos Kleiber, Carlos Kleiber and his (Inadequate) Recorded Legacy
  • Second  place ($1000): William Pannapacker, Publications relating to Walt Whitman, Walt Whitman and Sexual Dissidence
  • Honorable Mention: Jun S. Song, Books on theoretical physics topics, Life and Book Collecting: Am I bored, or am I boring?
  • Honorable Mention: Kathleen Gallagher, Paintings on paper by rural Nepalese women, Voices at the Margin: Women and Artistic Expression in Rural Nepal

1994 Winners

  • First place ($1000): Juliette Rogers, Antique and Promotional Cookbook Collection
  • First place ($1000): Monica A. Coleman, Story-telling in African American Studies
  • Honorable Mention: Mark Millman, A Collection of Gene Wolfe
  • Honorable Mention: Iain Maclean, Calvin and Calviniana
  • Honorable Mention: Mitchell Rasor, Nature, Culture and the Landscape of Infrastructure

1991 Winners

  • First place ($1000): William Bikales, Modern Literary First Editions
  • First place ($1000): Steven Wardell, Japanese Culture

1988 Winners

  • First place ($1000): William Bikales, Literary Firsts
  • First place ($1000): Adam Weiss, Contemporary Prints and Paintings
  • Honorable Mention: Michael Choi, Ocean Liner Memorabilia under Ephemera
  • Honorable Mention: Robert O’Hara, Natural History

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