The Loubat Prize

One week ago I was awarded the Loubat Prize. It is named after Joseph Florimond Loubat (1831-1927), a U.S. philanthropist with French parents. He was ennobled by the Pope in 1893. Loubat financed explorers, financed publication of scientific works, and endowed several chairs in American studies at several universities in USA and Europe. Several academies have received funds to support the Loubat prize for successful American studies. In Sweden it is The Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities who award people this prize. It is a prize for a printed and professionally executed work regarding America’s archaeology, ethnography, history or numismatics in the past five years. I was the lucky one this time. I was invited to Riddarhuset in Stockholm to receive the prize from the king. This was a bit of surprise, I had no idea of the existence of the prize.

Loubat himself