In 1988, The Academy of Accounting Historians established an annual manuscript award to encourage scholars new to the field to pursue historical research. An historical manuscript on any aspect of the field of accounting, broadly defined, is appropriate for submission.

Eligibility and Guidelines for Submissions

Any accounting faculty member, who holds a full-time appointment and who received his/her masters/doctorate within seven years previous to the date of submission, is eligible to be considered for this award. Coauthored manuscripts will be considered (if at least one coauthor received his/her master/doctorate within the last seven years). Manuscripts must conform to the style requirements of the Accounting Historians Journal. Previously published manuscripts or manuscripts under review are not eligible for consideration. A cover letter, indicating the author’s mailing address, the date of the award of the masters/doctoral degree, and a statement that the manuscript has not been published or is not currently being considered for publication should be included in the submission packet.  Submissions should be sent as a Word attachment via email.

Review Process and Award

The Vangermeersch Manuscript Award Committee will evaluate submitted manuscripts on a blind-review basis and select one recipient each year. The author will receive a $500 (U.S.) stipend and a plaque to recognize his/her outstanding achievement in historical research. In the case of coauthored manuscripts, only the junior faculty member(s) will receive prizes. The winning manuscript will be published in the Accounting Historians Journal after an appropriate review. The award will be given annually unless the Manuscript Award Committee determines that no submission warrants recognition as an outstanding manuscript.

Award: Plaque and $500

Send nominations to: Academy Executive Committee at Yvette.Lazdowski@unh.edu by Friday, February 28, 2025.

Congratulations to the 2023 Award Recipients!

"The 'Golden Rule': A Memorial to Dr. Larzette Golden Hale-Wilson (1920-2015)"
LaToya Flint (The University of Mississippi) and Brandi Holley (Samford University)

"The Regulatory Philosophy of James R. Doty"
John Keyser (Case Western Reserve University)

Past recipients of the Award:

2022: No Award Presented

2021: No Award Presented

2020: No Award Presented

2019: No Award Presented

2018: No Award Presented

2017: No Award Presented

2016: William H. Black (University of North Georgia) - "The Unintended Consequences of Tax Policy: How Mississippi’s ad valorem tax structure led to environmental devastation"

2015: No Award Presented

2014: Martin E. Persson (Western University) - “R. J. Chambers and the AICPA’s Postulates and Principles Controversy: A Case of Vicarious Action”

2013: Kevin C. Carduff (College of Charleston) - "Stewardship in Corporate Reporting: The Annual Reports of U.S. Steel (1938-1969)"

2012: Pierre Labardin (Université Paris-Dauphine) - "Accounting Valuation and Self-Interest in Nineteenth Century French Bankruptcy"

2011: Rania Mousa (University of Evansville) - "The Development of Electronic Filing Process: IHM Revenue & Customas, 1960s-2010"

2010: Michael Doron (Eastern Washington University) - "I Ask the Profession to Stand Still:' The Evolution of American Public Accountancy, 1927-62"

2009: James McKinney (University of Maryland) - "Audit Companies: Emergence, Prevelence, and Prominence in the United States Accounting Profession"

2008: Nicolas Praquin (University of Paris-Dauphine) - "The Emergence and Disappearance of Risk Assessment in Banking: The Case of the Credit Lyonais in France in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries"

2007: Phillip Cobbin (University of Melbourne) - "The best brains in public accountancy – The restricted membership of the Army Accountancy Advisory Panel 1942–1945"

2006: Suki Sian (Cardiff University) - "Patterns of prejudice: Social exclusion and racial demarcation in professional accountancy in Kenya"

2005: No Award Presented

2004: No Award Presented

2003: Shanta Davie (Newcastle University) - "Accounting’s uses in exploitative human engineering: theorizing citizenship, indirect rule and Britain’s imperial expansion"

2002: Yin Xu (Old Dominion University) - "Becoming Professional: Chinese Accounants in Early Twentieth-Century Shangai"

2001: Maria Macias (Carlos III de Madrid University) - "Privatization and Management Accounting Systems Change: The Case of the 19th Century Spanish Tobacco Monopoly"

2000: No Award Presented

1999: No Award Presented

1998: Michael Schoderbek (Rutgers University) - "Robert Morris and Reporting for the Treasury Under the U.S. Continental Congress"

1997: Keith P. McMillan, S. J. (Rockhurst College) - "The Science of Accounts: Bookkeeping Rooted in the Ideal of Science"

1996: Rachel Baskerville (Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand) - "The Telling Power of CCA - A New Zealand Oral History"

1995: No Award Presented

1994: Fernando Gutierrez-Hidalgo (University of Seville) - "Enlightenment and Accounting in the Royal Tobacco Factory of Seville"

1993: Ken W. Brown (Southwest Missouri State University) - "History of Financial Reporting Models for American Colleges and Universities: 1910 to the Present"

1992: Thomas Tyson (St. John Fisher College) - "The Nature and Environment of Cost Management Among Early Nineteenth Century U.S. Textile Manufacturers"

1991: Anne Fortin (University of Quebec in Montreal) - "The 1947 French Accounting Plan: Origins and Influences on Subsequent Practice"

1990: Moyra J. M. Kedslie (University of Hull) - "Mutual Self Interest - A Unifying Force; The Dominance of Societal Closure Over Social Background in the Early Professional Accounting Bodies"

1989: Sarah A. Reed (Texas A&M University) - "A Historical Analysis of Depreciation Accounting - The United States Steel Experience"

1988: Jan R. Heier (Auburn University at Montgomery) - "Thomas Affleck and His Cotton Plantation Record and Account Book: A Study in the Reasons and Origins of Accounting Principles"