New Jersey Historical Commission Announces 2023 Richard P. McCormick Prize

TRENTON, NJ - The New Jersey Historical Commission, in partnership with the New Jersey Studies Academic Alliance, announces Dr. Jean Soderlund as the winner of the 2023 Richard P. McCormick Prize for her book Separate Paths: Lenapes and Colonists in West New Jersey.

This award-winning book dives into the history of West Jersey in the 1600s and the ways in which Lenape men and women navigated relations with the Swedes and Finns versus the incoming Quakers. While Swedish and Finnish settlers allied with Lenape tribes to defend themselves against English rule, Quaker colonists, after the West Jersey Concessions of 1676-77, took Lenape territory for their own use. Separate Paths examines these two different systems of colonization and their lasting impacts.

"Dr. Soderlund's scholarship shines a light on our state's early history helping us better understand our present and better plan for our future," said Lieutenant Governor Tahesha Way who oversees the New Jersey Historical Commission in her capacity as Secretary of State.

"In Separate Paths, Dr. Soderlund takes centuries-old primary sources and weaves them into a comprehensible story about an under-researched aspect of New Jersey's past," said Sara Cureton, executive director of the New Jersey Historical Commission. "The quality of her research and the importance of her topic makes Dr. Soderlund well-deserving of the Richard P. McCormick Prize."

Dr. Soderlund is Professor Emerita in the Department of History at Lehigh University. Her research focuses on 17th and 18th century British America, with special interest in questions of ethnicity, gender, religion, and class.

The Richard P. McCormick Prize is an annual award recognizes the author of an outstanding scholarly book on New Jersey History. To learn more about the New Jersey Historical Commission's awards and prizes, visit history.nj.gov.

About the New Jersey Historical Commission
The New Jersey Historical Commission is a state agency dedicated to the advancement of public knowledge and preservation of New Jersey history. Established by law in 1967, its work is founded on the fundamental belief that an understanding of our shared heritage is essential to sustaining a cohesive and robust democracy.