Apply for the Janette Harley Prize

We are delighted to announce that entry to the 2025 Janette Harley Prize is now open. The prize is intended to generate interest in archives, and raise awareness of research and achievements in the world of archives. It is open to applications from archivists, conservators, owners of archives, and researchers, including academic researchers, local historians and genealogists. The judges are particularly keen to receive more entries from conservators and local historians.

Submissions do not need to have been published in hard copy. They can include electronic publications, blogs and other online means of promoting archives.

A prize of £500 will be awarded to the winning entry.

Previous winners of the Harley Prize:

2024: Dr Eliza Wheaton (editor), for ‘Loving and Obedient? Family Correspondence of the Mores of Loseley Park, 1537-1686’ (Surrey Record Society vol. XLVIII, 2023).

2023: the Prize was shared between two entries: Dr Ian Forrest and Christopher Whittick (translators and editors), for ‘The Visitation of Hereford Diocese in 1397’ (Canterbury & York Society, vol. CXI, 2021); and Dr Imogen Peck (Birmingham University), for “‘Of no sort of use’?: Manuscripts, Memory, and the Family Archive in Eighteenth Century England” (Cultural and Social History, vol. 20:2 for 2023, pp.183-204), and the accompanying blog series and online resources, part of the ‘Family Archives in Early Modern England’ research project supported by the Leverhulme Trust.

2022: the joint winners were Dr Janet Weston (Centre for History in Public Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) and Charlie Barnes (Dead Earnest Theatre) for ‘Power and Protection – the history of the Court of Protection’, two short films and a website created as part of ‘Measuring Mental Capacity’, a research study funded by the Wellcome Trust. The films and website can be found online.

The closing date for entries to the 2025 Janette Harley Prize is 31 July. We hope to announce the winning entry in November and the prize presentation will take place at the same time as the annual Maurice Bond Lecture, in spring 2026.

Terms and conditions and further details about how to apply can be found on the BRA website. For any queries and to submit entries, please email our Secretary.