May 1, 2003
Edgar Allan Poe Museum Wins Raven Award
On May 1, 2003, the Mystery Writers of America awarded the Raven Award to the Edgar Allan Poe Museum at the 57th Annual MWA Gala Banquet at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York. In the photograph, Poe Museum Trustee John Astin and President of the Poe Museum Board of Trustees Dr. Harry L. Poe hold the award. The Raven Award, created by the MWA especially to acknowledge non-writers who contribute to the mystery field, went to the Poe Museum for 81 years of Poe promotion and its joint effort with the MWA to sell bricks salvaged from Poe’s Manhattan home.

Past recipients of the Raven Award include Angela Lansbury and Bill Clinton. The MWA has long acknowledged the debt they owe Poe for having invented the detective story. Appropriately, they award an Edgar Allan Poe Award each year to recognize outstanding works in the mystery genre.