Victorian History Hall of Fame

The Royal Historical Society of Victoria, as part of its vision that ‘Victoria’s rich history is a meaningful part of all contemporary Victorians’ lives’, has created a Victorian History Hall of Fame. This will recognise and honour significant contributions made both posthumously and by those still living to the writing of Victoria’s history over the past 175 years.

The Hall of Fame will:

Honour both past and present practitioners;
Be drawn from nominations made to the Fellowship and Awards Committee by any RHSV member;
Be chosen annually by the RHSV Fellowship and Awards Committee;
Normally take into account the whole career oeuvre of a nominee and not one particular work;
Begin in 2024 with three posthumous and two living historians;
In any one year confer this honour on a maximum of four new nominees, with a maximum of three in each category;
Normally include four new awards each year, two posthumous and two for living nominees;
Make no new awards in either category in any given year if the Fellowship and Awards Committee so recommends.

The Fellowship and Awards Committee will award a place in the RHSV Victorian History Hall of Fame to those who:

Have made a highly distinguished and sustained contribution to the published body of Victorian history, or history that illuminates Victorian history, judged in the context of their time;*
And/or have made a significant and sustained contribution to one or more of the keepers of Victoria’s history, including, but not confined to: State Library Victoria, Museum Victoria, the Royal Historical Society of Victoria, and/or the Public Record Office Victoria.

*‘In the context of their time’

This phrase recognises that, in the case of posthumous awards:

Individuals are products of their historical context in terms of their ideas and values. To ignore this would be ahistorical. However, the Victorian History Hall of Fame will not honour work done in the past that would cause gross offence today;
Outlets and opportunities to publish change over time; for instance, Australian history journals apart from the Victorian Historical Magazine (later the VHJ) and the Journal of the RAHS did not appear until 1940 when Historical Studies: Australia and New Zealand was first published (their number did not substantially increase until the 1970s);
The funding of, and expectations about, historical research were quite limited until the last quarter of the 20^th century;
Women had fewer opportunities than men to participate in public and academic history until the last quarter of the 20^th century;
First Nations and migrant historians had limited opportunities to participate in public and academic history until the 21^st century;
The keepers of Victoria’s history defined above in criterion 2 either did not exist across the whole of Victoria’s history or were limited in function for much of that time.

Location

The Hall of Fame will be published in the Victorian Historical Journal and updated each year. All names will be listed alphabetically.

The names of new inductees will be accompanied by a citation of 500–600 words prepared by the RHSV Fellowship and Awards Committee.

If, in the case of previous recipients, their award was posthumously given, this is indicated by an asterisk after their name. The location of their citation is indicated after their name by the journal issue number and year of publication. Hence: William Barak (1824–1903)* 302/2024 means the award to William Barak was made posthumously, and his citation is to be found in issue 302 of the Victorian Historical Journal, which appeared in December 2024. The RHSV will endeavour to publish the names of new inductees annually in the June issue of the journal.