Westford, MA June 11, 2025. Byron Ellsworth Hamann's "Invention of the Colonial Americas: Data, Architecture, and the Archive of the Indies, 1781–1844" has received the 2024 Howard Karno award. This publication was submitted for consideration by Bruce Chorney, Getty Publications.

The Howard Karno Award has historically been given to "art librarians residing in Latin America or art librarians residing in North America working with significant Latin American art/architecture research collections or researching subjects or themes related to Latin American art/architecture" in support of attendance at the annual conference. This year, the award was given instead to the author of a publication related to Ibero-American art, architecture, photography (all time periods).

One of the committee members said of Invention of the Colonial Americas: "I found this book on the construction of the Colonial Americas through study of the Archive in Seville absolutely compelling, especially in the ways it connected the past with the present and our relationship with data. It seems incredibly relevant to art/architecture librarians and archivists, which seems central to ARLIS. It is also well written, attractively designed, and prompted critical questions for modern day scholars to ponder in their own work."

This award comes with a cash prize of $1200 for the author.

The members of the 2024 ARLIS/NA Howard Karno Award Sub-Committee were Laurel Bliss (chair), Maggie Portis, and Lynn Kawaratani.