The Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities

The Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities, established by the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1972, is the highest honor the federal government confers for distinguished intellectual achievement in the humanities. Read more >

Dr. Andrew Delbanco, President of The Teagle Foundation, was NEH”s 50th Anniversary Jefferson Lecturer and made his presentation in October, 2022 at President Abraham Lincoln’s Cottage in Washington, D.C. Time magazine donned him “America's Best Social Critic” in 2001, and he received a 2011 National Humanities Medal “for his writings on higher education and the place classic authors hold in history and contemporary life.”
More about Dr. Delbanco >

The National Humanities Medal

The National Humanities Medal honors individuals or groups whose work has deepened the nation's understanding of the humanities and broadened our citizens' engagement with history, literature, languages, philosophy, and other humanities subjects, or helped preserve and expand Americans’ access to important resources in the humanities. Inaugurated in 1997, up to 12 National Humanities Medals can be awarded each year. 

From 1989 to 1996, NEH awarded a similar prize known as the Charles Frankel Prize to recognize persons for outstanding contributions to the public’s understanding of the humanities. Complete lists of the winners of the National Humanities Medal and Frankel Prize are online at the NEH.gov website.

Past Recipients include:

Recent recipients:

2020
Kay Coles James
O. James Lighthizer
National World War II Museum

2019
The Claremont Institute
Teresa Lozano Long
Patrick O’Connell
James Patterson

2015
Rudolfo Anaya
José Andrés
Ron Chernow
Louise Glück
Terry Gross
Louis Menand
Elaine Pagels
Prison University Project
Wynton Marsalis
James McBride
Abraham Verghese
Isabel Wilkerson