Michelle Lyons receives Roosevelt Award, highlights human side of federal history work

Michelle Lyons accepted the Society's Franklin Delano Roosevelt Award and used her remarks to describe what she learned over a 30-year federal history career at the National Institutes of Health and the Stetten Museum.

Lyons thanked colleagues for the nomination and reflected on starting as a federal summer hire and serving in many roles across federal archives and museums. She described four sustaining qualities for federal history professionals—"creativity, storytelling, cataloguing, and backbone"—and emphasized the human service role historians often perform inside agencies.

"The federal history professional is often the last resort for people who want to talk to a human in a federal agency," Lyons said, explaining that historians frequently serve as mediators, researchers, and stewards of agency memory. She recounted examples ranging from working with Nobel laureates to carrying archival materials to exhibits and noted the importance of maintaining historical accuracy and institutional independence.

Lyons's remarks noted the range of audiences served by federal historians and the unexpected places their collections reach, including international researchers. The ceremony recognized her long service and announced her new membership on the board of directors of the Public Education Project.