The Award

• $ 1,500 cash award
• Three-year membership in the Washington Map Society
• Publication of the winning paper in The Portolan, the journal of the Washington Map Society.

Honorable Mention may be awarded to an additional paper or papers at the judges’ discretion.

Who May Apply

Full or part-time undergraduate and  graduate students, and individuals in first-year doctoral studies at accredited U. S. or foreign colleges and universities.

The Ristow Prize is designed and intended to encourage scholars who are entering the field. 

Entry Criteria

The competition seeks research papers in the field of the history of maps, completed in fulfillment of coursework requirements or based on original research.

All papers must be in English, documented in a style selected by the author, and not exceeding 7500 words. Inclusion of clear maps and other graphics supporting the paper is encouraged.

Papers entered for the Prize may have been previously presented at academic symposia or entered in other competitions. They must not, however, have been published, or in consideration for publication at the time of entry.

Format

Papers should be converted to a Word or a PDF document and submitted to Deepak Bhattasali (Chair, Ristow Prize Committee) - bhattasali@cox.net by 12:59 PM EST on the date of the submission deadline. Formatting should be consistent with the "Guidelines for Submission of Articles" for The Portolan.

Please ensure that the document includes a title page with the entrant’s name, address, telephone number, e-mail address, and school, department, and academic status.

Please do not include the entrant’s name on any other page except the title page.

Judging

Three broad criteria are used to judge the Ristow Prize competition:

1. importance of research (e.g., originality, sources used)
2. quality of research (e.g., accuracy, source reliability)
3. writing quality (e.g., clarity, organization, command of cartographic terms).

Judging is performed by at least three persons with suitable backgrounds in the history of cartography. They are often drawn from the membership of the Washington Map Society, and in the past they have included some of the most learned academics, archivists, and collectors of our time.

Each judge works independently to evaluate each paper. The identity of the judges is not made public.

Deadline

Emailed no later than 1 June of each year to Deepak Bhattasali at bhattasali@cox.net.

Other Useful Information

Publication of the winning paper is a requisite for receipt of the Ristow Prize. It is the responsibility of the winning scholar to work with the editor of The Portolan to prepare the paper for publication. The cash award is paid on verification by the editor that the author has provided the necessary assistance to make publication possible.

When a paper is published, The Portolan may carry a brief profile of the author, for which biographic information and a recent photo will be requested.

Publication in The Portolan places the winning paper in some of the top academic and intellectual institutions in the world. The Portolan is available at the Library of Congress, British Library, Bibliothèque Nationale, and several other national libraries. It is on the shelves of libraries at Harvard, Yale, Brown, Cornell, Oxford, Trinity Dublin, and other outstanding universities. It appears at prestigious institutions such as the Huntington Library, Newberry Library, New York Public Library, and others.