The Historical Society of New Mexico (HSNM) has announced the recipients of its 2025 Book and Service Awards.
The awards recognize significant contributions made in 2024 to the preservation and understanding of New Mexico’s history and cultural heritage.
Among this year’s most distinguished honorees is the East Mountain Historical Society (EMHS), awarded the Lansing B. Bloom Award for its 2025 calendar, Picturing History.
The Bloom Award is given to an institution affiliated with HSNM that demonstrates excellence in the publication of New Mexico or Southwest Borderlands history.
The winners will be honored at the annual Awards Banquet, the closing event of the 2025 New Mexico-Arizona History Conference in Las Cruces, September 25–27.
EMHS, a volunteer-driven nonprofit based east of Albuquerque, was recognized for its ongoing efforts to document and share the heritage of the Sandia, Manzano and Manzanita mountain communities.
The society’s annual calendars, initiated in 2014, have become staples of regional storytelling through archival photography and historical narrative.
Founded in 1992, EMHS is dedicated to identifying, preserving and presenting the history and culture of the East Mountain area, which includes the historic villages of Tijeras, Carnuel, Chilili and others.
The group also preserves significant sites like the Campo stone house, which is currently undergoing restoration to become a permanent headquarters, visitor center and archive for the society.
EMHS has earned multiple awards over the years for its publications, including Timelines of the East Mountains, a 700-page book chronicling more than 400 square miles of local history, and its long-running newsletter, which has won top honors from the New Mexico Press Women.
The group also hosts regular events, exhibits, oral history projects and educational programs to engage the public in the region’s rich cultural legacy.
The 2025 HSNM awards ceremony also recognized several other individuals and organizations for their contributions:
Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá Award (Outstanding Historical Publications)
- Brandon Morgan for Raid and Reconciliation: Pancho Villa, Modernization, and Violence in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands
- Frances Levine for Crossings: Women on the Santa Fe Trail
(Both works explore important stories that shaped the borderlands and early trade routes.)
Fray Francisco Atanasio Dominguez Award
- Jon M. Wallace for The Sheep Industry of Territorial New Mexico
Pablita Velarde Award (Children’s Literature)
- Nasario Garcia for Clarita’s Clay Pot: A Story of Friendship
- Robynne Mellor and David-Alexander Hubbard Sloan for Santa Fe’s El Zaguan
Ralph Emerson Twitchell Award
- J. Hoolihan Clayton for Discretion is Valor, a novel exploring the history of the Chihenne and Mescalero Apache
Fabiola Cabeza de Baca Award
- Tim Amsden for Love Letter to Ramah: Living beside New Mexico’s Trail of the Ancients, a personal account of life in the region
Edgar Lee Hewett Award for Service
- Nikki Nojima Louis for her decades of creative work highlighting the history of Japanese-American incarceration in New Mexico during World War II
The HSNM awards program supports the organization’s mission to honor scholarship, service and public history that highlight the diverse narratives of New Mexico’s past.
For more information about award recipients or upcoming programs, contact Dennis Daily, Chair of HSNM Awards, at awards@hsnm.org or 719-243-9952.
To learn more about EMHS or explore its publications and archives, visit eastmountainhistory.org.