AR2001--The National Humanities Medalists

National Endowment for the Humanities 2001 Annual Report

The National Humanities Medalists

Artist José Cisneros is renowned for depicting the people and culture of the historical Southwest through his illustrations for magazines, books, and newspapers. His Borderlands--The Heritage of the Lower Rio Grande through the Art of José Cisneros chronicles events in the history of the border between Texas and Mexico. He was knighted by Pope Paul II and by King Juan Carlos of Spain for his contribution to understanding history through his art. He was honored in Texas for his contributions to understanding history by then Governor George W. Bush.

Robert Coles, a research psychologist and professor of psychiatry and medical humanities at Harvard University, has written more than fifty books on ethics, child psychology, and the humanities. His honors include the 2000 Medal of Freedom, a 1981 MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship and a 1973 Pulitzer Prize for volumes two and three of his five-volume Children of Crisis (1967–1978). Coles also wrote The Moral Life of Children (1986) and The Spiritual Life of Children (1990). He is the Agee Professor of Social Ethics at Harvard.

Sharon Darling is president and founder of the National Center for Family Literacy in Louisville, Kentucky, where she has been at the forefront of efforts to place family reading and learning activities on the national agenda. Beginning with a handful of projects in Kentucky and North Carolina, her programs today take place at more than three thousand sites across the country. Her awards include the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism, the Charles A. Dana Award for Pioneering Achievement in Education, and the Harold W. McGraw Award for Outstanding Education.

Historian William Manchester is a novelist, biographer, essayist, and memoirist. Among his works are American Caesar (1978), a biography of Douglas MacArthur, The Death of a President (1967) about the Kennedy assassination, and The Last Lion, about the life of Winston Churchill. His honors include the Prix Dag Hammarskjoeld au merite litteraire and the Abraham Lincoln Literary Award. He is an emeritus professor of history at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut.

Richard Peck has written more than twenty-five novels and is one of America’s most respected writers for young adults. His awards include the American Library Association’s 1990 Margaret A. Edwards Award and the University of Southern Mississippi’s 1991 Medallion Award. Several of his novels have appeared on the American Library Association’s list of Best Books for Young Adults and five have been made into television movies. His Depression-era novel, A Long Way from Chicago, was a National Book Award finalist, and its sequel, A Year Down Yonder, won the 2001 Newbery Medal.

Musicologist Eileen Jackson Southern has helped transform the study and understanding of American music. Recipient of the 2000 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of American Music, she was founding editor of the journal Black Perspectives in Music. Among the works she has edited are Readings in Black American Music, The Music of Black Americans: A History, and African American Traditions in Song, Sermon, Tale and Dance 1600s–1920. She is emerita professor of music and black studies at Harvard University, where she was the first African American woman to be tenured in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Author Tom Wolfe has written numerous works on contemporary culture and society. His novels include A Man in Full, The Bonfire of the Vanities, Radical Chic and Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby. The Right Stuff, an account of the beginnings of the American space program, became a national bestseller and the basis for a film. His other writings include The Painted Word and From Bauhaus to Our House, which provide critical looks at modern art and architecture.

Established by Congress in 1949, the National Trust for Historic Preservation works to protect the built environment and incorporate historic places into community life. The Trust has been instrumental in broadening the preservation movement. In addition to a network of twenty historic sites that serve as centers for preservation and humanities education, the Trust helps rehabilitate downtown areas and turn neglected historic properties into affordable housing. The organization is the lead partner in the White House’s Save America’s Treasures initiative. The Trust’s latest endeavor is to broaden humanities-based education at historic sites nationwide.