The Bispham Memorial Medal Award was an award for operas written in English which was named for baritone David Bispham, who was a great proponent of performing opera in English in the United States.
It originated from the Opera in Our Language Foundation, Inc., founded by composer Eleanor Everest Freer, and Edith Rockefeller McCormick, in 1921.
Eleanor Everest Freer was chairman, and Edith Rockefeller McCormick was treasurer, of both organizations.
The first medal was awarded by the American Opera Society of Chicago in 1924 to Ernest Trow Carter, for his opera The White Bird, which saw its first full performance at the Studebaker Theater, in Chicago, on March 6, 1924.
The last Medal for an opera was awarded around 1953 to Vittorio Giannini for The Taming of the Shrew.