The Center for Home Movies has received the Society of American Archivists’ 2017 Philip M. Hamer and Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award.

The award “recognizes an archivist, editor, group of individuals, or institution that has increased public awareness of a specific body of documents through compilation, transcription, exhibition, or public presentation of archives or manuscript materials for educational, instructional, or other public purpose.”

To qualify for the award, which has been made annually since 1973, archives may include photographs, films, and visual archives, and publish them in any medium.

In an announcement of the award, the Center for Home Movies, whose mission is “to transform the way people think about home movies by providing the means to discover, celebrate, and preserve them as cultural heritage,” said: “The SAA is the oldest and largest generalist archivist association in North America, so this award provides wider recognition for the good work of everyone involved with CHM and Home Movie Day, as well as a platform for further advocacy for the unique cultural artifacts we all love so much.”

The award is named for Elizabeth Hamer Kegan, who in 1963 was appointed Assistant Librarian of Congress, where she directed information, exhibits, publications, and international visitors’ programs at the institution, and shepherded the American Revolution Bicentennial Program. Her late husband, Philip M. Hamer, was a historian who served successively as head of the Library, Accessions, Reference, and Records Control divisions of the National Archives, and was the first executive director of the National Historical Publications Commission. He was the author of A Guide to the Archives and Manuscripts in the United States (1961).

Last year’s winner was the South Asian American Digital Archive, a Philadelphia organization that documents, preserves, and shares the diverse experiences of people of those communities.