The Scone Foundation Archivist Award will take place at the Center Hill Farm in Copake, NY on August 5th, 2022 from 4:30 to 7 pm. 

For reservation, send a request to info@sconefoundation.org.

On August 5th, the eve of the 77th anniversary of the Hiroshima nuclear bombardment, The Scone Foundation will present its annual archivist award to Cannon Hersey. This annual award recognizes an archivist or activist who has made a significant contribution in such fields as resisting censorship, preserving historical memory, or by providing support to scholars conducting research in history and biography.

Cannon is being honored for continuing the work of his grandfather John Hersey, the legendary journalist whose 1946 reporting remains the most compelling description of the impact of the bombing on survivors. Cannon has made some thirty trips to Hiroshima to interview descendants of survivor families. His photographs, textiles and silkscreens present stark, haunting images of trees, vegetation and mementos of the nuclear blast. In collaboration with the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, Cannon has, together with Akira Fujimoto, created Future Memory to reproduce bombed objects in a 3D virtual space.

Complementing the award presentation, the prize-winning author, Simon Winchester, will talk about the role of wisdom in the making, testing and use of the atom bomb, the subject of a chapter from his forthcoming book, Knowing What We Know.

Previous recipients of the Scone award have included Dr. Saad Eskander for his service as director of the Iraq National Library and Archives, Nancy Dupree for her contribution to the history of Afghanistan, Albert Knoll for reinvigorating the Dachau archives, and Jingming Xion for preserving memories of the Cultural Revolution. A joint award was made to Khader Salemah, then the archivist of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and Dr. Y. Freundlich, the Israel State Archivist.

Robert A. Caro, Asa Briggs, Robert Skidelsky and Roger Cohen have been past speakers.

This event will take place in an outdoor tented area at Center Hill Farm, Copake, N.Y. 12516, from 4:30 to 7 PM. For reservations, send request to info@sconefoundation.org

From August 6th through September 25th, the Carrie Chen Gallery on 16 Railroad Street, Great Barrington, Massachusetts will exhibit books, artifacts, letters and other personal items of John Hersey, together with paintings of his son, John Jr. and grandson, Cannon. Likewise included will be mementos of Hiroshima survivors collected by Cannon.

Stanley Cohen,
President, Scone Foundation