The Caroline I. Wilby Prize was founded in 1897 in memory of Caroline I. Wilby, by her friends and former students. The prize is given annually to the student who has produced the best original work within any of the departments of Radcliffe College, Cambridge in Massachusetts. The prize is only awarded if a dissertation or thesis is considered worthy enough.
The prize was given for the first time in 1899 to Kate Oelzner Petersen, for her thesis On the Sources of the Nonne Prestes Tale.Kate Oelzner Petersen, On the Sources of the Nonne Prestes Tale, Other winners include the medievalist Lucy Allen Paton (1865-1951), for her thesis Morgain, la fée, a study in the fairy mythology of the middle ages,Lucy Allen PatonStudies in the fairy mythology of Arthurian romance, the historian Grace Lee Nute (1895-1990) for her thesis American foreign commerce (1825-1850)Grace Lee Nute, American foreign commerce (1825-1850), and also the astronomer Dorrit Hoffleit (1907-2007), for her thesis On the Spectroscopic Determination of Absolute Magnitudes….Dorrit Hoffleit, On the Spectroscopic Determination of Absolute Magnitudes, With Application to the Southern Stars of Types Later than A, 1938, Florence Shirley Patterson Jones's dissertation, Surface photometry of external galaxiesBarbara L. Welther, "Florence Shirley Patterson Jones (1913-2000)" American Astronomical Society.Annie J. Cannon, "Report of the Astronomical Fellowship Committee" Annual Report of the Maria Mitchell Association 39(1940): 11-12. won the Wilby Prize in 1941.
Recipients +YearRecipientTitle1899Kate Oelzner Petersen1900Lucy Allen Paton1904Belva Mary HerronCaroline StrongTail-Rhyme Strophe in English Poetry1905Eleanor Harris Rowland1906Frances Hall Rousmaniere1907Mabel Ellery AdamsAn Inquiry into the Condition of one hundred deaf persons who have been pupils at the Horace Mann School in Boston1909Kate Fairbanks Puffer1910Maud Bassett Gorham1911Ruth Holden1912Charlotte Farrington Babcock1913Elizabeth Church1915Evelyn SpringQuo Modo Aeschylus in Tragoediis Suis Res Antecedentis Exposuerit: 1916Frances Isabella Hyams1917Caroline Frances Tupper1918Olive B. WhiteThe Verse Translations of John Dryden1919Marian IrwinNellie Gertrude Chase1920Matilda Moldenhauer BrooksBernice V Brown1921Grace Lee Nute1922Hannah G. RoachSectionalism in American Politics from the Reconstruction Period to 18901923Mary Ballantine Hume Eva Matthews Sanford(shared prize)1924Cecilia H. Payne Ionization in the Atmosphere of the Hotter Stars1926Olive B. White Eleanor Lansing DullesThe Background of English Renaissance in 15th Century Oxford The French Franc Since the War (shared prize)1928Marine Leland1929Katherine HartwellThe Influence of the Latin Church Father, Lactantius, on the Works of John Milton1930Marjorie K. CarpenterGreek Hymnography: A Study of the Christmas Hymn1931Mary Frances WilliamsContemporary German Architecture1933Gerda Richards CrosbyThe Transformation of the Tory Party after 1780: A Study in Eighteenth-Century Party Politics1934Catherine E. BoydA Cistercian Nunnery in Italy in the 13th Century1935Marie L. Edel LaTourette StockwellThe Relations Between Prose and Metrical Composition in Early Irish Narrative Literature The Dublin Theatre, 19637-1820 (shared prize)1936Sarah Margaret Cousins1937Dorothy Kneeland ClarkThomas Osborne, Earl of Danby, Lord Treasurer1938Dorrit Hoffleit1939Muriel E. HidyGeorge Peabody, Merchant and Financier1941Florence Shirley Patterson1942Sylvia Leah BerkmanKatherine Mansfield: A Study of Her Life and Work1943Dewilda NaramoreThe Arriereban in Medieval France1944Cora C. MasonThe Ethics of Wealth in Early Greek Thought1946Evelyn Hodes WilsonAntimalarials1947Alice Rose StewartThe Imperial Policy of Sir John A. MacDonald, Canada's First Prime Minister1948Ilse NovakOn the Consistency of Goedel's Axioms for Class and Set Theory Relative to a Weaker Set of Axioms1949Cecelia Marie KenyonConceptions of Human Nature in American Political Thought, 1630–18261950Adrienne Richfor her poetry; first undergraduate to win the Wilby1951Barbara BellA Study of Doppler and Damping Effects in the Solar Atmosphere1952Dorothy E. BlissEndocrine Control of Metabolism in the Decapod Crustacean, Gecarcinus Lateralis1953Margery W. AdamsArt in the 11th and 12th Centuries1954Isabel Emory Gamble1955Judith N. ShklarFate and Futility: Two Themes in Contemporary Political Theory1958Patricia Hochschild Labalme1959Roberta F. ColmanStudies on Dicarboxylic Amino Acids1960Rulan Chao PianRulan Chao Pian, "The Future of Chinese Musicology" The University Bulletin (Spring 1975): 3.Sung Dynasty Music Sources1961Jean H. WheelerFreedom and America1962Evelyn Ann PottingerNapoleon III and the German Crisis
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