VCU news

By Sian Wilkerson

History has long been in Nathan Vernon Madison’s blood – and on his walls.

Growing up with a dad who studied the Tudor and Elizabethan eras and a mom who also was a history buff, he said their interests were featured prominently in the home decor.

“I joke a lot with people that growing up, we had more pictures of King Henry VIII and Sir Thomas More around the house than we ever did family portraits,” said Madison, who received his Master of Arts degree in American history from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2010. “History has always been a big thing for me.”

His expertise leans toward more recent times – and varied themes. A scholar of both comic book history and Virginia’s economic and industrial past, Madison has been busy since graduation, and his achievements continue to gain notice.

Madison was announced recently as the 2024 recipient of the VCU History Graduate Alumni Achievement Award, which recognizes a master’s program graduate of the Department of History who has made distinguished contributions to their profession or field of endeavor. He will be presented the award on March 19 at the department’s annual Blake Lecture at the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.

Madison is the author of several books, including “Anti-Foreign Imagery in American Pulp and Comic Books, 1920-1960” (2013), “Tredegar Iron Works – Richmond’s Foundry on the James” (2015) and, most recently, “The Richmond Locomotive & Machine Works: Engine of the Old Dominion” (2023).

His first book, adapted from his master’s thesis, examines through popular literature the change in America’s nativist sentiments after the World War I. He received a Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards nomination in 2014 for Best Scholarly/Academic Book.

Madison also was a contributor to “Comics Through Time – A History of Icons, Idols, and Ideas – Volumes I-IV,” which was nominated for Best Book at the Eisner Awards in 2015. And he has written articles including “Science Fiction Magazines in the Pulp Era,” which appeared in the “Routledge Companion to the British and North American Literary Magazine.”

Madison’s documentary work includes co-producing “How the Welsh Changed the World: A Tale of Two Tredegars” on PBS and consulting on James Cameron’s “Story of Science Fiction” and American History TV’s “Tredegar Iron Works.”

Earlier this year, he joined the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia as its primary historical officer and has spent years serving as a historical consultant.

Madison said he was “surprised and honored” to learn that he was being recognized by his alma mater. He is the fourth recipient of the graduate alumni award.

“The previous winners were all people I respect on a lot of levels,” he said. “One is Ana Edwards, who has done a lot for local history and I worked with her at different museums in the past. So I was very, very proud to be alongside her and everyone else.”

The award is the department’s highest recognition given exclusively to graduate alumni, and the winner is selected by faculty who serve on the graduate committee.

“Anyone wondering, ‘What can you do with a history degree?’ can find inspiration in the career Nathan has built for himself,” said Emilie Raymond, Ph.D., a professor and director of graduate studies in the Department of History in the College of Humanities and Sciences.

Describing Madison’s success as a model of achievement for the department, Raymond also noted his broad experience across multiple fields with an eclectic body of work.

Among Madison’s current projects are a collection detailing the history of anime fandom in the United States and a biography of Frank Munsey, an American newspaper publisher and political financier.

“It’s nice to have all the effort that I put into writing history and researching recognized and acknowledged,” Madison said, “not just in general but by the department that I got my degree from.”