Southgate was a student and expert of the Bureau Issues of the United States.

At the Bureau Issues Association (now the United States Stamp Society) he was its first president and chairman of the board (1939–1940).

Southgate was also active in the American Philatelic Society and was one of the first to investigate and study the archives of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.

Winner of the trophy include Morton Dean Joyce, Henry M. Gobie, William M. Fitch, Cortlande Clarke and Eliot Landau.

[1] Hugh Southgate was named to the American Philatelic Society Hall of Fame in 1941.