Wilton Library recently received the 2025 Award of Excellence from the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) for The Brubeck Collection and Digital Archive. The AASLH Leadership in History Awards program, now in its 80th year, is the nation’s most prestigious recognition for achievement in the preservation and interpretation of state and local history.
The Brubeck Collection was established by late jazz legend Dave Brubeck and his wife, Iola, as a “living archive” of Dave’s long and illustrious career as a celebrated musician and composer. The Brubeck Collection, now housed at Wilton Library, is one and world’s premier jazz archives and passes on Dave’s legacy to musicians, musicologists, researchers, historians, jazz aficionados and the public.
“Tish and I are thrilled to learn that the Brubeck Collection and Digital Archive at Wilton Library has been named the 2025 Award of Excellence winner by the American Association for State and Local History. Winning this national award and the invitation to be part of this year’s conference in Cincinnati speaks volumes about the promise and value of the Brubeck archives being historically important and highly valued on a national level,” Dave and Iola Brubeck’s son Chris Brubeck said.
“This could not have been achieved without the hard work and dedication of Caroline Mandler with Michael Bellacosa and his team, along with the tremendous support and encouragement of the Library Board, the Town of Wilton and the enthusiastic pride of the entire Wilton community. Congratulations and many thanks to all from the Brubeck Family,” Chris Brubeck added.
“We are honored to receive this prestigious award from the American Association for State and Local History. The Brubeck Collection is one of the world’s premier jazz archives, and we are extremely proud of the Collection and our digital archive as well as the significant expansion of our jazz history programming, which these make possible,” said Bellacosa, the curator of The Brubeck Collection.
“Dave Brubeck and his music are two of Wilton’s treasures, which we are so pleased to share. We would like to thank the Brubeck family for all of their support. And we could never have accomplished this without the hard work of Thomas Kozak, the library’s head of technology, Julie Hughes, our archivist, and our database and website design consultants at Whirl-i-Gig,” he added.
The Leadership in History Awards will be presented at the AASLH Annual Conference in Cincinnati, OH on Sept. 12. This year’s other awardees included historical societies and history and art museums of various sizes across the nation. The AASLH awards program was initiated in 1945 to establish and encourage standards of excellence in the collection, preservation, and interpretation of state and local history throughout the United States. The winners represent the best in the field and provide leadership for the future of state and local history.