Marian Wilson Kimber, Professor of Musicology in the School of Music, has been awarded the 2026 Mildred Throne and Charles Aldrich Scholarly History Award for her article, “Making Dvořák Iowan: Perle Schmidt, Spillville, and the Construction of Iowa’s Musical Identity.” Wilson Kimber was honored at an event held at the State Historical Museum of Iowa in Des Moines earlier this summer. The award recognizes the most significant article on Iowa history published in a professional history journal during the previous year. It is named in honor of Iowa history journal editor, Mildred Throne, and Charles Aldrich, who helped found the publication, Annals of Iowa, in which Wilson Kimber’s article appeared.

 

Wilson Kimber’s winning article explores the role of Ames clubwoman, Perle Schmidt, in helping to make the Iowa visit of the famous Czech composer, Antonín Dvořák, well known. Homesick while teaching in New York City, Dvořák spent the summer of 1893 in Spillville among the town’s numerous Czech residents. There he composed his “American” String Quartet and other works. In 1925 Schmidt arranged for a memorial to Dvořák’s visit to be placed in Spillville. She also lectured about the composer around the state for over two decades.

 

Wilson Kimber’s research highlights women’s clubs’ activities, contributing to the history of both women and music in Iowa. Her writing about the previously unknown Schmidt also appears in her forthcoming book from University of Illinois Press, Clubwomen Activists and the Making of American Music. The book illuminates the crucial role women’s clubs played in U.S musical life in the first half of the twentieth century.