NAHP Hall of Papermaking Champions

The NAHP Hall of Papermaking Champions is a historical resource of significant modern pioneers and researchers in hand papermaking which includes important contributors no longer with us. The NAHP Hall of Papermaking Champions offers documentation and important facts to further research on people in our field who have been inducted as a Papermaking Champion by a committee process and annual membership vote. The past informs the present, and leads us into the future.

NAHP has established the Hall of Papermaking Champions to honor individuals or a collaboration/group whose contributions during their careers have significantly inspired or changed the course of the papermaking field. Paper artists, traditional papermakers, toolmakers, scientists, conservators, historians and others are all eligible for nomination. (Nominees may be living or deceased.) Nominations may be submitted online to the Hall of Papermaking Champions Committee from April 15 to July 15 this year.

The Hall of Papermaking Champions committee chair and the Board encourage nominations from anyone, whether a member of NAHP or not. The committee considers all nominations submitted in a given year and makes its recommendations to the membership based on which nominees have significantly inspired or changed the course of the papermaking field. (Nominators may compose their nomination text using whatever software they prefer but please cut and paste it into the nomination form. Attachments are not allowed in the interest of efficient and accurate processing of nominations.) For an idea of the types of contributions that qualified in the past, readers are advised to review the essays on members of the Hall of Papermaking Champions that appear below.

The 2024 Champions, elected at the October 2024 meeting in Denver, are:

• Donald Farnsworth

• Mary Hark

• Mina Takahashi

• Peter and Donna Thomas

• Beck Whitehead (deceased)

Essays and photographs will be prepared and added to this online Hall of Papermaking Champions in the coming months.

The 2025 Hall of Papermaking Champions Committee will be chaired by Helen Hiebert, and will be formed in early 2025. Nominations open April 15, 2025 and the Nominations Form will be available here (please do not submit before April 15 of that year).