The Smithsonian American Art Museum has awarded the 2010 Charles C. Eldredge Prize for Distinguished Scholarship in American Art to Kirk Savage for his book Monument Wars: Washington, D.C., the National Mall, and the Transformation of the Memorial Landscape (University of California Press, 2009). It is recognized as a "beautifully written and cogently argued book that recounts the creation and re-creation of the memorial landscape of Washington, D.C., where generations of designers, engineers and artists have given concrete form to the imagined community of the nation." Savage is professor and department chair in the history of art and architecture at the University of Pittsburgh. He earned a doctorate degree from University of California, Berkeley in 1990. Savage began writing about public monuments and public space in the United States when he was a freelance writer in the early 1980s. The Eldredge Prize, named in honor of the former director of the museum (1982-1988), is sponsored by the American Art Forum, a patrons' support organization. This annual award, initiated in 1989, seeks to recognize originality and thoroughness of research, excellence of writing and clarity of method.