New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

Grants

Mellon Fellowship at the New-York Historical Society

by Leave a Comment

The New-York Historical Society invites qualified applicants who are within 3-5 years of having received the Ph.D. to apply for one of two Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowships for research and writing in any field relevant to the Society’s library and museum collections. Awardees are expected to be in residence for the academic year commencing on September 1, 2010, and carry an academic year stipend of $60,000. The
deadline for applications is March 1, 2010, with decisions to be announced by April 23.

Applicants should send a cover letter, including date of PhD, current institutional affiliation and rank, mailing and e-mail addresses, telephone and fax numbers, and title of project; a two to three page description of project, including resources to be used; a curriculum vitae; and three letters of recommendation to Jean Ashton, Executive
Vice President and Library Director, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024. Postmark deadline is March 1, 2010; electronic applications must be received by 11:59 p.m. on that date.

Collection descriptions may be found on the New-York Historical Society website.

NY Council for the Humanities Grant Winners

by Leave a Comment

This past month, the New York Council for the Humanities awarded more than $300,000 in major grant funds to 22 organizations located in 14 counties in New York State. Awardees were selected from a pool of 60 applicants, a 35% increase from this time last year. Below is a complete list of awarded projects.

The Adirondack Museum
Blue Mountain Lake, Hamilton County
Awarded $20,000 for Let’s Eat!: Adirondack Food Traditions
An exhibition exploring the development of Adirondack food traditions from the 19th to the 20th centuries with a focus on the local environment.
Awarded January 15, 2010

Albany Institute of History and Art
Albany, Albany County
Awarded $2,500 for 2010 Hudson River Lecture Series
A series of four illustrated lectures about different aspects of the cultural and social significance of the Hudson River.
Awarded January 11, 2010

Brooklyn College, Hitchcock Institute for Studies in American Music
Brooklyn, Kings County
Awarded $8,800 for Black Brooklyn Renaissance Conference
A day-long event celebrating Brooklyn’s role as a major center of Black American music and culture.
Awarded January 15, 2010

Chemung County Historical Society
Elmira, Chemung County
Awarded $8,181 for Mark Twain in Elmira
An exhibition celebrating Mark Twain’s ties to the community of Elmira on the occasion of the anniversary of his birth.
Awarded January 15, 2010

Community Works
New York, New York County
Awarded $11,050 for Harlem’s Black Arts Movement: Its Past, Its Present and Its Future
Three interactive dialogues with key figures in the Black Arts Movement.
Awarded January 15, 2010

CUNY John Jay College of Criminal Justice
New York, New York County
Awarded $16,250 for Justice and Injustice in America: the 1950s
A series of lectures focused on the 1950’s and 1960’s in America featuring preeminent scholars of jurisprudence and U.S. History.
Awarded January 15, 2010

Eldridge Street Project
New York, New York County
Awarded $12,982 for Ways We Worship: Jewish Practice & Beyond
A new public tour and related lecture series exploring the history of Judaism in America.
Awarded January 15, 2010

Epic Theatre Center
New York, New York County
Awarded $11,300 for Epic Forum Series 2010: Doubt and Certainty
A series of over 100 post-performance scholar-led discussions related to the theme of “Doubt and Certainty.”
Awarded January 15, 2010

Erie Canal Museum
Syracuse, Onondaga County
Awarded $20,000 for Heartland Passage: the Oral History of the Erie Canal
An on-line oral history exhibition about people involved with the Erie Canal.
Awarded January 15, 2010

Geneva Historical Society
Geneva, Ontario County
Awarded $10,310 for Geneva’s Changing Landscape
Development of a permanent exhibition about the history of Geneva from the 1700s to the present, using the lens of environmental history.
Awarded January 15, 2010

Historic Cherry Hill
Albany, Albany County
Awarded $2,250 for Program Planning: Class and Power in 18th Century Albany
A planning grant for a program exploring class and power in 18th century Albany.
Awarded January 26, 2010

Imagining America
Syracuse, Onondaga County
Awarded $18,000 for Revitalizing Downtown Syracuse: Local Culture, Trans-Local Knowledge
A performance and four public discussions exploring issues of culture and community revitalization.
Awarded January 15, 2010

Lower Manhattan Cultural Council
New York, New York County
Awarded $15,000 for Access Restricted: Nomadic Lecture Series Exploring Lower Manhattan
A free nomadic lecture series that opens to the public rarely visited or inaccessible spaces in Lower Manhattan. This year’s session will focus on the topics of jurisprudence and ethics.
Awarded January 15, 2010

Morrisville State College, Science, Technology & Society Program
Morrisville, Madison County
Awarded $5,850 for Agricultural Acts: On the Futures of Farming and Food
A two-day program of events about the future of food production.
Awarded January 15, 2010

Mount Vernon Hotel Museum & Garden
New York City, New York County
Awarded $2,095 for A Feminine Palette, Women Artists of the 19th and Early 20th Century
A panel discussion exploring the work and lives of three lesser-known women artists from the 19th and early 20th century.
Awarded January 26, 2010

National Jazz Museum in Harlem
New York, New York County
Awarded $20,000 for Jazz for Curious Listeners
A year-long series of weekly dialogues about jazz and culture.
Awarded January 15, 2010

New Rochelle Council on the Arts
New Rochelle, Westchester County
Awarded $6,000 for Sounds Shore Shakespeare Festival
A Westchester county-wide celebration of Shakespearian works.
Awarded January 15, 2010

New York Library Association
Guilderland, Albany County
Awarded $7,500 for The Empire State Book Festival
A two-day celebration of reading held in the Empire State Plaza
Awarded January 15, 2010

Old Fort Niagara Association
Youngstown, Niagara County
Awarded $11,370 for Anglo-Native Relations on the Niagara Frontier, 1759-1764
A combination of special lectures and daily programs designed to examine the cross-cultural interactions at the fort between Iroquois people and Europeans.
Awarded January 15, 2010

Radio Diaries, Inc.
New York, New York County
Awarded $20,000 for America’s Lost Stories
A series of radio documentaries uncovering little-known chapters of 20th century American history to be broadcast on National Public Radio.
Awarded January 15, 2010

Slate Valley Museum Foundation
Granville, Washington County
Awarded $13,845 for Cultural Expressions in the Slate Valley
A series of six programs exploring the impact of various immigrant groups who came to the Slate Valley region between 1850 and 1930.
Awarded January 15, 2010

Southampton Historical Museum
Southampton, Suffolk County
Awarded $2,150 for Southampton Women Who Made a Difference
An exhibition exploring the influence of the Southampton women and their work from different historical periods and cultures.
Awarded January 9, 2010

SUNY Oswego, School of Communication, Media and the Arts
Oswego, Oswego County
Awarded $7,884 for From Global to Local: Diaspora, the Arts and Community
Weekly radio programs over a two-month period exploring issues of immigration and globalization as it relates to Central New York.
Awarded January 15, 2010

Three Village Historical Society
Saint James, Suffolk County
Awarded $20,000 for General Washington’s Spies: How a Group of Long Islanders Helped Win the Revolution
A permanent exhibition for children about a Long Island-based spy-ring during the Revolutionary War.
Awarded January 15, 2010

Traditional Arts in Upstate New York (TAUNY)
Canton, Saint Lawrence County
Awarded $20,000 for Kindred Pursuits: Folk Art in North Country Life
An exhibition of contemporary and historic folk art from the North Country, exploring its relation to the region’s culture and history.
Awarded January 15, 2010

Underground Railroad History Project of the Capital Region
Troy, Albany County
Awarded $19,686 for Gender, Class, Race and Ethnicity in Abolitionism, on the Underground Railroad, and in the Struggle Since
Three days of programming related to the history of the Underground Railroad in New York State and beyond and its contemporary implications.
Awarded January 15, 2010

Weeksville Heritage Center
Brroklyn, Kings County
Awarded $2,500 for Planning Weeksville’s Orientation Exhibition: Defining a Sense of Place
Planning for an interactive orientation exhibition for the historic Weeksville community.
Awarded January 1, 2010

Marcus Garvey Foundation Offers Research Grants

by Leave a Comment

The non-profit Marcus Garvey Memorial Foundation, established in 1961 in New York City, and whose work is informed by the educational philosophy and ideals of Marcus Garvey, is offering two research fellowships on topics related to Africa and the African diaspora, and those related to the Universal Negro Improvement Association, the African Communities League, and/or Marcus Garvey’s organizational activities.

Proposals are welcome on a wide variety of research topics (and in a wide variety of disciplines), but will be evaluated based on their relevance to key questions in the field of African and African diaspora studies and on the basis of their unique contribution to scholarship.

Marcus Garvey Foundation Research Fellowship:

This fellowship – named in honor of the Marcus Garvey Foundation – looks to support doctoral candidates doing primary research in the humanities and social sciences on topics related to Africa and the African diaspora. Those doctoral candidates using archival collections and/or conducting oral histories are especially encouraged to apply. Research fellows receive grants of $500 to help defray research expenses.

2) Jean Harvey Slappy Research Fellowship:

This fellowship – named in honor of Jean Harvey Slappy, a long-time board member of the Marcus Garvey Foundation – looks to support doctoral candidates working on aspects of the history of the U.N.I.A. (Universal Negro Improvement Association), the A.C.L. (African Communities League), and/or Marcus Garvey’s organizational activities, and who wish to use the recently deposited papers of Thomas W. Harvey, located at Emory University’s Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library. Research fellows receive grants of $500 to help defray expenses associated with travel to and use of the archival collection.

APPLYING FOR THE FELLOWSHIPS:

All applications & attachments must be received by March 17, 2010. Decisions will be announced on May 1, 2010. Required application materials:

A 2-page summary of the larger research project

A 1-page description of the specific project with a line-item budget (for up to $500.00) and timeline for the specific research to be carried out with the grant

CV (no longer than 2 pages)

One recommendation from an advising professor

For more information, contact the Garvey Foundation at GarveyFoundation(at)gmail.com; or at:

Marcus Garvey Foundation
P.O. Box 42379
Philadelphia, PA 19101

The Lost World of Early America with John Demos

by Leave a Comment

This summer, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History Summer Seminars will offer The Lost World of Early America, a two-week NEH Summer Institute led by historian John Demos at Yale University. Teachers invited to participate will travel back to the Colonial Era in order to explore the lives of early Americans—and, in turn, gain a richer understanding of the changes that resulted from both the American Revolution and the Industrial Revolution in the American experience.

All K-12 history, social studies, and English teachers, including those who attended a Gilder Lehrman Summer Seminar in 2009, are now eligible to apply to this NEH Summer Institute.

John Demos is the Samuel Knight Professor of History at Yale University, where he has specialized in teaching early American history since 1986. His most recent work, The The Enemy Within: 2,000 Years of Witch-hunting in the Western World (Viking, 2008), culminates a half-century of intense study of witch-hunting incidents in Europe and America.

This is a unique opportunity for Summer Seminar alumni who typically have to alternate years for their application.

Selected participants will receive fellowships to offset travel costs to the Institute, July 18-31, 2010—and be eligible to apply to and attend the full-range of Gilder Lehrman Summer Seminars in 2010 and the future.

Application deadline: March 2, 2010; seminar space is limited.

For further details about this NEH Summer Institute visit:
www.gilderlehrman.org/education/seminar_NEH.php, email seminars@gilderlehrman.org or call 646-366-9666.

Early American Industries Grants Program

by Leave a Comment

The Early American Industries Association (EAIA) has announced a $6,000 Research Grants Program to provide grants to individuals or institutions engaged in research projects that relate to historic trades, crafts, and tools and their impact on our lives. The numbers and amount of each grant is to be given at the discretion of a committee, with no one grant to exceed $2,000.

The 2009 grant supported a project on 18th and 19th century coopering in Virginia and New England. Previous grants have supported a wide variety of projects, and normally three or more grants are made each year. A complete list may be found on the EAIA web site.

The Early American Industries Association, established in 1933, preserves and presents historic trades, crafts and tools and interprets their impact on our lives. The Association comprises collectors, curators, historians, antiquarians, librarians, material culturists, and anyone who shares our interests.

The Application deadline for 2010 is March 15. For further information on the EAIA and the Research Grants Program, and to print the four-page application visit their web site, www.EAIAinfo.org or contact Ms. Justine Clerc, Lorleton Assisted Living, 22 West 14th Street, Apt. 129, Wilmington, DE 19805 (302) 652-7297.

Send all inquiries to Research Grants Program c/o Ms. Justine Clerc.

Hodson-Brown Fellowship:Literature, History, Culture, Art Before 1820

by Leave a Comment

The C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience and the John Carter Brown Library invite applications for the Hodson Trust-John Carter Brown Fellowship, a unique research and writing fellowship.

The Hodson-Brown Fellowship supports work by academics, independent scholars and writers working on significant projects relating to the literature, history, culture, or art of the Americas before 1830. Candidates with a U.S. history topic are strongly encouraged to concentrate on the period prior to 1801. The fellowship is also open to
filmmakers, novelists, creative and performing artists, and others working on projects that draw on this period of history.

The fellowship award supports two months of research (conducted at the John Carter Brown Library in Providence, R.I.) and two months of writing (at Washington College in Chestertown, Md). Housing and university privileges will be provided. The fellowship includes a stipend of $5,000 per month for a total of $20,000.

Deadline for applications for the 2010-11 fellowship year is March 15, 2010.

For more information and application instructions, please visit the Starr Center’s website at http://starrcenter.washcoll.edu.

US Cultural History Fellowships Announced

by Leave a Comment

The Library Company of Philadelphia and Historical Society of Pennsylvania have announced research fellowships in Colonial and U.S. History and Culture for 2010-2011. The fellowships, outlined below, include generally orientated one-month visiting fellowships, and long term dissertation fellowships, and a dissertation fellowship for the study of Early American Literature and Material Texts.

One-Month Visiting Research Fellowships

These two independent research libraries will jointly award approximately thirty one-month fellowships for research in residence in either or both collections during 2010-2011. The two institutions, adjacent to each other in Center City Philadelphia, have complementary collections capable of supporting research in a variety of fields and disciplines relating to the history of America and the Atlantic world from the 17th through the 19th centuries, as well as Mid-Atlantic regional history to the present. For information on the collections, visit www.hsp.org and www.librarycompany.org.

One-month fellowships carry a stipend of $2,000 and are tenable for any one-month period between June 2010-May 2011. Two Barra Foundation International Fellowships, each for $2,500 plus a travel allowance, are reserved for foreign national scholars resident outside the U. S. Some of the short-term fellowships provide for study in specific fields, such as ethnic and immigrant history; history of the book; African American History; visual culture; and economic history (through the Library Company’s Program in Early American Economy and Society). For more detailed information about all of these fellowships, go to www.librarycompany.org/fellowships. We invite inquiries about the appropriateness of proposed topics to jgreen@librarycompany.org. The Library Company’s Cassatt House fellows’ residence offers rooms at reasonable rates.

The deadline for receipt of one-month fellowship applications is March 1, 2010, with a decision to be made by April 15. To apply, visit www.librarycompany.org/fellowships, fill out an electronic cover sheet, and submit one portable document format (PDF) containing a résumé and a 2-4 page description of the proposed research. One letter of recommendation should arrive under separate cover in PDF format as well. Please email materials to fellowships@librarycompany.org. If you wish you apply for more than one fellowship, simply check more than one box on your electronic cover sheet.

Library Company Long-term Dissertation Fellowships

The Library Company also supports dissertation research in residence through the Albert M. Greenfield Foundation Fellowship (on any subject relevant to its collections) and the Program in Early American Economy and Society Fellowship (for research in economic history). The term of these fellowships is from September 2010 to May 2011, with a stipend of $20,000. The awards may be divided between two applicants, each of whom would spend a semester in residence. The application deadline and procedures are the same as for the one-month fellowships as described above, with the addition of a second letter of reference and a writing sample of about 25 pages.

Dissertation Fellowships in Early American Literature and Material Texts

The McNeil Center for Early American Studies, in collaboration with the Library Company, offers two dissertation fellowships in early American literature and material texts, supported by a new grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Fellows will be in residence from July 2010 through July 2011. The stipend for a 13-month term will be at least $28,000. To apply go to www.mceas.org. Deadline, March 1, 2010.

Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition Post-Doc Fellowship

by 1 Comment

The Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University invites applications for its 2010-2011 Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. The Center seeks to promote a better understanding of all aspects of the institution of slavery from the earliest times to the present. The Center especially welcomes proposals that will utilize the special collections of the Yale University Libraries or other research collections of the New England area, and explicitly engage issues of slavery, resistance, abolition, and their legacies.

Scholars from all disciplines are encouraged to apply. The GLC offers one-month and four-month residential fellowships to support both established and younger scholars in researching projects that can be linked to the aims of the Center.

For more information visit http://www.yale.edu/glc/info/fellowship.htm.

The application deadline is April 2, 2010.

The Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition
Yale University
PO Box 208206
New Haven, CT 06520-8206
www.yale.edu/glc
gilder.lehrman.center@yale.edu
Phone: 203-432-3339 ~ Fax: 203-432-6943

Vermont Ranks 1st In Federal Historic Tax Credits

by Leave a Comment

A recent federal report ranks Vermont the top state in per capita use of Federal Historic Tax Credits to rehabilitate historic buildings and 10th in the nation overall – rising from 12th overall last year. A total of 34 rehabilitation projects with a total construction value of more than $23 million received $4.6 million in federal tax credits in the last fiscal year.

State officials credit the decision several years ago to require those seeking state historic Downtown Tax Credits to first get Federal Historic Tax Credits with putting Vermont to consistently within or just outside the top ten states nationally for use of the credits, despite its small size. [Read more…] about Vermont Ranks 1st In Federal Historic Tax Credits

Documentary Heritage Program Grants Announcement

by Leave a Comment

The New York State Department of Education has announced the Documentary Heritage Program (DHP) funding for 2010-2011. DHP is a statewide program established in 1988 and administered by the New York State Archives to ensure the identification, sound administration and accessibility of New York’s historical records.

One the most important components of the DHP is the grants program. DHP Grants are designed to encourage more comprehensive documentation of New York State*s history and culture by supporting projects that identify, survey, collect, and make available important records relating to groups and topics traditionally under-represented in the historical record. DHP is administered by the New York State Archives.

Eligible applicants include not-for-profit community organizations, archives, libraries, historical societies, and similar institutions within New York State and consortia or partnerships of such agencies. Also eligible are service providers such as historical service agencies, colleges and universities, professional associations, or other not-for-profit institutions or systems that provide services to historical records programs.

A total of $92,000 is expected to be available for grants projects. Grants will be available in amounts up to $25,000. Applicants may seek support for personnel; purchased services, including qualified consultants; supplies; materials and equipment costing less than $5,000; and travel as required to directly support project activities and outcomes.

Grants in this cycle are for up to 12-month projects, from July 1, 2010 through June 30, 2011. Applications must be postmarked by Monday, February 1, 2010. Tentative date for the announcement of grant awards is June 30, 2010.

Grant Project Types

Documentation – The purpose of a documentation project is to identify and ensure the systematic preservation of papers and records not currently in historical records repositories that provide information on the people, groups, events or changing political, economic or social conditions of New York State. A documentation project typically consists of three phases – planning, surveying, and collecting – and usually takes at least two years to complete. Cost sharing of at least 20% is required for Documentation projects.

Arrangement & Description – Arrangement and description are the processes used to obtain physical and intellectual control over materials held in historic records repositories. Arrangement is the process of organizing materials with respect to their provenance and original order, to protect their context and to achieve physical and/or
intellectual control over the materials. Description is the creation of an accurate representation of a unit of archival material by the process of capturing, collating, analyzing, and organizing information that serves to identify archival material and explain the context and records system(s) that produced it. The objective of archival description is the creation of access tools that assist users in discovering desired
records. Cost sharing of at least 50% is required for Arrangement & Description
projects.

Archival Needs Assessment – Historical records repositories undertake needs assessments to evaluate and plan for archival program development. As a result, a comprehensive needs assessment, carried out by an experienced archivist with the requisite expertise, will pinpoint problems, recommend solutions, set priorities, and guide the development
of archival activity. Cost sharing of at least 50% is required for Archival Needs Assessment projects.

Ineligible Projects

Several types of historical records projects are not eligible for funding under the DHP. These include:

* Projects that do not have primary focus on New York State
* Digitization (projects to create digital records)
* Item-level description and/or indexing
* Oral history and/or video taping
* Newspapers (these are not considered to be historical records under the DHP law)
* Preservation (i.e., the physical work to conserve, restore, or repair records, or reproduction for preservation purposes such as microfilming)

In order to insure that the DHP addresses the New York State Historical Records Advisory Board*s mandate to identify, survey, collect, and make available historical records that relate to under-documented groups or subjects, the State Archives has identified and given priority to specific topical areas for DHP funding. These topics are listed in Priority Levels One and Two below. Although applications for projects
that focus on any under-documented group or subject are eligible for funding, they will receive fewer points during grants review than those in Levels One and Two.

Priority Level One
* Population groups in the 20th and 21st centuries
* Economic change in the 20th and 21st centuries
* World Trade Center disaster, September 11, 2001
* Education policy

Priority Level Two
* Environmental affairs
* Mental health

Priority Level Three
* Other under-documented topics in New York State history

Application Process

Grant application forms and guidelines will be available in October 2009. They may be obtained by emailing the State Archives at dhs@nysed.gov or by visiting the State Archives Web site at http://www.archives.nysed.gov/a/grants/grants_dhp.shtml.

For further information, contact:

Pamela Cooley/Documentary Heritage Program
New York State Archives
Room 9C71 Cultural Education Center
Albany, NY 12230
Telephone: 518-474-6926
Email: dhs@mail.nysed.gov