History preservation award
The Katherine Drake Hart Award
The Katherine Drake Hart History Preservation Award was established by the Austin History Center Association in 1991. It honors the founder and first director of the Austin-Travis County Collection, now the Austin History Center.
Recipients
Since 2020, each recipient has received a small version of Bob Coffee’s sculpture “Pop the Whip.”
Past award winners
- 1991Sue McBee
- 1992Emmett Shelton and Dorothy Depwe
- 1993Audray Bateman Randle
- 1994Drury Blake Alexander
- 1996Dealey Herndon
- 1997Wayne Bell
- 1998Matt Kreisle
- 1999Marian B. Davis
- 2000Mary Jo Cooper
- 2001Binnie and David Hoffman
- 2002Betty Baker
- 2003Karen Kocher
- 2004Biruta Celmin Kearl
- 2005Dr. David B. Gracy
- 2006Ed Van de Vort
- 2007Michael Barnes
- 2020Dr. Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez
- 2021Gloria Mata Pennington
- 2022Karen Kocher and Monica Flores
- 2023Harold McMillan
- 2024Donna Carter
- 2025Ted Lee Eubanks
- 2026Katie Robinson Edwards
Who was Katherine Drake Hart?
Katherine Drake Hart’s family has deep roots in Austin and Travis County. Dr. Hart was a leader in both historic preservation and the preservation of the history of Austin and Travis County. In addition to founding the archival collection that became the Austin History Center, she helped found the Heritage Society of Austin (now Preservation Austin) and served as its president, helped write the City of Austin’s historical zoning ordinance and served on the boards of numerous historical societies and committees. Thanks to her work, many Austin buildings were saved, including the Old Bakery and the Littlefield Home.
Dr. Hart helped found Waterloo Press, where she oversaw the publication of a number of books. For the press she edited and annotated Pease Porridge Hot, featuring Austin’s Pease family, and Alphonse in Austin, about Alphonse Dubois, the French consul to Texas who lived in the French Legation during the years of the Texas Republic. Dr. Hart wrote a weekly column for the Austin American-Statesman called “The Waterloo Scrapbook.” She is buried in the Texas State Cemetery.
The award sculpture: “Pop the Whip”
A small version of the late Bob Coffee’s “Pop the Whip” sculpture was chosen in 2020 to present to the winners of the Katherine Drake Hart Award. The sculpture celebrates the well-known children’s game in which children form a line and swing around. The combined energy of all the children together is more powerful than any single child’s would be, and that message of working together is important for preserving history.
Bob Coffee was one of the original founding members of the Austin History Center Association in 1979. Our thanks go to the Coffee family for allowing this sculpture to be presented.
Giving
Help preserve Austin’s history
Every gift keeps the History Center’s programs, preservation and oral histories going. Monthly donors make up the Giving Circle, and their steady support is what sustains this work.
