The Department of History is delighted to announce the latest recipients of the Nancy Bylan Bratman Excellence in Writing Awards. These prizes celebrate the insightful work of students in the “Doing History” class (History 202), along with the impressive projects produced by upper-level students in the History colloquia ( History 496 and 497).
The Bratman prizes were established in 2016 by a generous gift from brothers Ben and David Bratman to honor their mother, Nancy Bylan Bratman. Congratulations to our Fall 2025 winners:
- Charles Milne-Home, History 202, for an essay entitled, “A House on Paper: Samson Adams, Black Property, and the Fragility of Documentation in 18th-Century Trenton"
- Naomi Jaroslaw, History 497, for an essay entitled, “Beyond the Burial Parish: Belonging in Late Medieval London"
Nancy Ellin Bylan was born June 7, 1929, in Detroit, and grew up in Grand Rapids. After a year at Wellesley College, she transferred happily to the University of Michigan to complete her undergraduate education. She majored in History and remained proudest of her A+ junior-year thesis on the Boer War. She was also active on the Michigan Daily, where she served as a reporter and associate editor, and in the Gilbert & Sullivan Society, for which she was a chorister and treasurer.
After receiving her BA in 1951, Nancy worked for several years as an editor in New York and Chicago, mostly for trade publications. She married Dr. Robert Bratman in 1956, and they moved to California where they raised four sons: David, Michael, Joel, and Benjamin. Always an elegant writer and impeccable editor, she was delighted to oblige when her sons, even as adults, asked her to review their writing. Nancy died on March 15, 2014, at the age of 84.
