SAAM Announces the 38th Annual Eldredge Prize Winner: Maggie M. Cao

The Smithsonian American Art Museum is delighted to announce that Dr. Maggie M. Cao, professor of art history at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill has been awarded the Charles C. Eldredge Prize for her book Painting US Empire: Nineteenth-Century Art and Its Legacies (University of Chicago Press, 2025).
‍

The annual Eldredge Prize, named in honor of the museum’s former director (1982–1988), recognizes originality and thoroughness of research, excellence of writing, and clarity of method. Single-author, book-length publications in the field of American art history appearing within the previous three calendar years are eligible. This year’s jurors were Amy M. Mooney of Columbia College Chicago, Richard Meyer of Stanford University, and Megan A. Smetzer of Capilano University.
‍

The jury described Painting US Empire as a “capacious and elegantly written study of how nineteenth-century American art gave visual form to the logics of the U.S. empire, and of how those logics continue to shape artistic practice today.” They note that the book “offers an antidote to American exceptionalism, breaking down the borders that have too often confined American art history to a national frame,” and that it helps “readers understand the present-day realities of U.S. imperialism through their nineteenth-century visual roots.” The jurors commend Dr. Cao’s writing as a “rare combination of sophistication and clarity, drawing together disparate materials and moments into an argument that feels both rigorous and alive,” and praise her methods as she “moves fluidly between the nineteenth century and the recent past, tracing how an idea travels across time without flattening the specificity of either moment.” The trio found the book timely and relevant “for institutions grappling with how to reinstall and reinterpret American art collections for contemporary audiences.” The jury concluded that “Cao models what it means to study American art as a history that is anchored in the United States while always moving, intentionally, outward.”
‍

Shortlisted for the 2026 prize were: Jennifer Sichel, Criticism Without Authority: Gene Swenson’s and Jill Johnston’s Queer Practices (University of Chicago Press, 2025) and Amanda Cachia, Hospital Aesthetics: Disability, Medicine, Activism (Manchester University Press, 2025).

In conjunction with the award, Cao will present the Eldredge Prize Lecture on Wednesday, March 10, 2027.

For more information on the prize, Dr. Cao’s upcoming lecture, and a list of past winners, please visit americanart.si.edu/research/awards/eldredge.