H G Merriam

In 1976 retired professor Harold Guy Merriam (1883-1980) endowed this award “to be used . . . for study, by an undergraduate or graduate student in the University, of some cultural aspect of life in the Rocky Mountain region of our country, or for a cultural work characteristic of the region . . . in appreciation of the instruction I received.” Merriam, a UW graduate in the class of 1903, received one of the first Rhodes Scholarships in 1904 and subsequently read English language and literature for two degrees at Oxford University (Lincoln College). He taught at Whitman, Beloit, and Reed Colleges and in later life received a doctorate from Columbia University. In 1919 he began a thirty-five year career building the creative writing program at the University of Montana, where he also endowed a prize and scholarship. He directed the federal WPA writers’ project in Montana and was one of the founding members of the Wyoming chapter of Phi Beta Kappa (1940). In 1962 UW awarded him an honorary degree.

Past submissions for the award have been literary (poetry, essay, fiction, drama), musical (recording), and artistic (painting, photography, sculpture), and we encourage this year’s applicants to submit from any of these categories. To be eligible for this award, you must currently be a University of Wyoming student.