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HomeDriver Award Winners

Captain William Driver Award for Presentations

The Captain William Driver Award is conferred by the executive board on the NAVA member who presents the best paper at each year's annual meeting.  Past recipients:

 2023  Zachary Gardiner Myths of Maryland: The Calvert, the Crossland, and the Civil War (publication pending)
2022 Steven A. Knowlton "Convoluted Iconography Notwithstanding": Competing Interpretations of Flag Use during the Immigration Law Protests of 2006" (Raven 30, 2023: pp. 23–52).
2021 John T. Andrews "Clinging to the Past: National Unity and the Rejection of Rifat Chadirji’s Redesigned Iraqi Flag" (Raven 29, 2022: pp. 67–96).

Brian Cham "The Six Little-Known Deal-Breakers of Bad Flag Design" (Honorable Mention) (Vexillum 19, September 2022: pp. 20–21).
2020 Scott D. Mainwaring "The American Thin Blue Line Flag: A Controversial Success Story" (Raven 28, 2021: pp. 111-49).
2019 Bard C. Cosman "American Neḥushtan: Why the Gadsden Flag is Yellow" (publication pending in the Proceedings of the 28th International Congress of Vexillology).

Dean Thomas "Last Flag Down—The story of the final lowering of the South Vietnamese Flag at the end of the Vietnam War" (Honorable Mention) (publication pending in the Proceedings of the 28th International Congress of Vexillology).
2018 Rachel Phelan "Captured! James Connolly’s Green Flag of Ireland: Liberty Hall, the Royal Inniskilling Fussiliers, and the 1916 Garrison Flag" (Raven 26, 2019: pp. 1–18).
2017 Carlos Alberto Morales-Ramírez "The Puerto Rican Flag: A Pilot Study in Vexillology" (Research in Social Sciences and Technology (RESSAT), Vol. 3, No. 3, Oct. 2018).
2016 Hipólito Rafael Chacón Ph.D. "The Global Legacy of the Estrella Solitaria, Cuba’s Lone Star Flag" (Raven 26, 2019: pp. 1–26).

Amy J. Langston "The Intersectionality of Flags, Religion, and the Gay Pride Movement" (Honorable Mention) (Flag Research Quarterly 12, May, 2017: pp. 1, 3–11).
2015 Hugh L. Brady J.D. "But It Was Ours: The Red Ensign, Dominion Day, and the Effects of Patriotic Memory on the Canadian Flag Debate" (Raven 23, 2016: pp. 19–54).
2014 Scot M. Guenter Ph.D. "The Phenomenon of Flag Homes: Musings on Meanings" (Raven 22, 2015: pp. 27–53).
2013 Dean C. Thomas "Flags and Emblems of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea: Vexillidolatry in Its Purest Form" (Raven 21, 2014: pp. 95–115).
2012 Steven A. Knowlton M.L.I.S. "Evocation and Figurative Thought in Tennessee Flag Culture" (originally presented as “Pragmatic Unity and Visual Synecdoche in Tennessee Flag Culture”)  (Raven 20, 2013: pp. 23–53).
2011 Kenneth J. Hartvigsen M.A. "Picturing Flag Violence in Civil War Sheet Music: The Case of 'Down With the Traitors’ Serpent Flag  (Proceedings of the 24th International Congress of Vexillology, 2011: pp. 407–424).
2010 John M. Hartvigsen "Utah’s Mammoth Statehood Flag" (Raven 19, 2012: pp. 27–56).

Louis Maxime Meka Meka "Creation, Significance, Evolution, and Display of the Cameroonian Flag" (Honorable Mention) (NAVA News 215, September 2012: pp. 2–5).
2009 Scot M. Guenter Ph.D. "Juxtaposing Symbols in Civil Religion: The Lady and the Flag" (Raven 17, 2010: pp. 1–21).

Peter A. Ansoff "Flags of the State Navies in the Revolutionary War" (Honorable Mention) (Raven 17, 2010: pp. 23–46).

2008 Anne M. Platoff M.S., M.A. "Lions and Babrs and Bears: Analyzing the Flags of Russia’s Federal Subjects" (published as Russian Regional Flags, Raven 16, 2009: pp. 1–154).
2007 Perry Dane J.D. "Flags in Context: A Discussion of Design, Genre, and Aesthetics" (Raven 15, 2008: pp. 43–80).
2006 Kenneth W. Reynolds Ph.D. "To Make the Unmistakable Signal 'CANADA': The Canadian Army’s 'Battle Flag' During the Second World War" (Raven 14, 2007: pp. 1–33).
2005 David B. Martucci "Flag and Symbol Usage in Early New England" (Raven 13, 2006: pp. 1–40).
2004 Devereaux D. Cannon, Jr. J.D. "The Genesis of the Stars and Bars" (Raven 12, 2005: pp. 1–26).
2003 Joseph E. Donovan "Two Irish Flags: A Comparative Analysis" (Raven 11, 2004: pp. 72–79).
2002 Peter A. Ansoff "The First Navy Jack" (Raven 11, 2004: pp. 1–60).
2001 Gustavo Tracchia "The Banners of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table" (NAVA News 178, April–June 2003: pp. 6–12).
2000 Kevin Harrington M.A. "The Michigan Flags Project: An Introduction to the Vexillology of Michigan Coupled with a Guide to Research in these United States" (originally presented as "The Michigan Flags Project")  (Raven 8, 2001: pp. 73–84).
1999 Mason E. Kaye "Tribar Flags—A Survey and Analysis" (Proceedings of the 18th International Congress of Vexillology: pp. B17–B24).
1998 Luc V. Baronian "American-Influenced Flags in Lower Canada" (Raven 7, 2000: pp. 47–56).
1997 Gustavo Tracchia "The Flag Monument in Rosario, Argentina" (originally presented as "Argentine Flags Monument") (Raven 7, 2000: pp. 37–46).
1996 John H. Gámez "The Evolution of the U.S. National Air Insignia: 1861–Present" (Raven 7, 2000: pp. 57–110).
1995 Donald T. Healy "Flags of the Native American Peoples of the United States" (Raven 3/4, 1996–1997).
1994 Robert J. Goldstein Ph.D. "Whatever Happened to the Great 1989–90 American Flag Desecration Uproar?" (Raven 2, 1995: pp. 1–32).
1993 Peter B. Edwards "The Flags of Recreational Boating—A Preliminary Study" (originally presented as "Yacht Flags:  A Preliminary Survey")  (Raven 2, 1995: pp. 79–105).
1992 Anne M. Platoff "Where No Flag Has Gone Before: Political and Technical Aspects of Placing of a Flag on the Moon" (Raven 1, 1994: pp. 3–16).
1991 Charles A. Spain J.D. "The Flags and Seals of Texas" (Updated version: Flag Research Quarterly, No. 10 (August 2016); first published in South Texas Law Review 33, no. 1, 1992: pp. 215–59).

Gustavo Tracchia "The Banners of Yale’s Residential Colleges" (Honorable Mention) (Vexillum, No. 3 (September 2018): pp. 9–13).
1990 Mark A. B. LeMessurier "The Signal and Commercial Flags of St. John’s, Newfoundland c.1500–c.1900" (Raven 7, 2000: pp. 19–36).
1989 Kevin Harrington M.A. "From Kava’s Apron to the Butcher’s Apron: Names and Nicknames of Flags" (NAVA News 24, no. 2, March/April 1991) pp. 4, 6).

Anne M. Platoff "Proposed Designs for the State Flag of Kansas" (Honorable Mention) (not yet published).

1988 Donald T. Healy "Evolutionary Vexillography: One Flag’s Influence in Modern Design" (originally presented as "Evolutionary Vexillography")  (Raven 1, 1994: pp. 41–64).
1987 Arnold F. Rabbow Ph.D. "Flags: Life After Death" (Proceedings of the 12th International Congress of Vexillology, Flag Bulletin 28, nos. 1–4 [issue #130], pp. 224–32)
1986 Alistair B. Fraser Ph.D. "Chadwick and the Canadian Red Ensign" (published in part in The Flags of Canada "Canadian Ensigns").
1985 Scot M. Guenter M.A. "This Flag Has Flown Over the U.S. Capitol" (Flag Bulletin 25, no. 4  [Issue #117], 1986: pp. 147–59).

Henry Untermeyer "The New Flag of the City of Palm Springs" (Honorable Mention) (not yet published)
1984 James J. Ferrigan III "A Flag Incident in San Francisco" (Vexillum #11, September 2020, pp. 25–27).
1983 Whitney Smith Ph.D. "Vexillology and Patriotism." (Flag Bulletin 23, no. 3 [Issue #105], 1984: pp. 96–108).
1982 John M. Hartvigsen "The Brandywine Flag" (Flag Bulletin 38, no. 2 [Issue #186], 1999: pp. 50–69).
1981 James A. Croft "South African Civic Flags" (Flag Bulletin 36, no. 1 [issue #173], 1997: pp. 7–16).
1980 Emmet V. Mittlebeeler J.D., Ph.D. "Flag Profanation: An Aegean Perspective" (Flag Bulletin 24, no. 3 [Issue #111], 1985: pp. 78–83).
1979 Robert S. Gauron "The Life and Achievement of 'Old Glory' Driver—Godfather to the United States Flag" (not published)
and
"Fascinating Flags of Plundering Pirates and Profiteering Privateers" (Raven 7, 2000: pp. 1–18).
The Captain William Driver Award guidelines