David Center for the American Revolution Short-Term Resident Research Fellowships
The David Center for the American Revolution at the American Philosophical Society's Library & Museum in Philadelphia invites applications for its short-term resident research fellowships. David Center Fellowships continue the 30-year tradition of the David Library awarding over 200 fellowships to scholars who have gone on to write hundreds of dissertations, academic articles, academic papers and books, and to teach at major institutions of higher learning worldwide, about the American Revolution and Founding Era. These funding opportunities provide one month of support for researchers in residence and are open to scholars in all fields who show a demonstrated need to use the collections for their project.
The David Center for the American Revolution integrates the rich manuscript, microfilm, and print collections of the David Library with the Early American history collections of the APS to create a one-stop-shop for the study of the American Revolution. The David Library collections consist of approximately 8,000 volumes, 9,000 reels of microfilm, and the large Sol Feinstone manuscript collection. The Sol Feinstone Collection, a rich collection of letters and documents, was assembled by DLAR Founder Sol Feinstone (1888-1980) over a period of fifty years. It includes material on almost all notable Americans from before the Revolution to the 1850s, as well as prominent Europeans and documents related to military affairs. This adds to the APS Library's Early American History Collections, which are particularly strong for the period from 1750 to 1840. In addition to the Benjamin Franklin Papers and the Thomas Paine Collection, the APS has a wide assortment of documents from the revolutionary era. Among these are official government documents and correspondence, military records that range from the Continental Army to Pennsylvania county records, and personal correspondence from various historical actors. Comprehensive, searchable guides and finding aids to these collections are available online at www.amphilsoc.org/library and http://amphilsoc.pastperfectonline.com/.
Successful applicants are awarded a stipend of $3,000. The stipend is paid after the awardee arrives at the APS's Library & Museum to begin their fellowship. The purpose of the stipend is to defray the costs of working in Philadelphia. Awards are taxable income, but the Society is not required to report payments. It is understood that recipients will discuss their reporting obligations with their tax advisors.
Fellowships may be taken starting any day no earlier than June 1, 2025 and must be completed by May 31, 2026. Fellows are required to be in residence for four consecutive weeks. Fellows do not have to decide on the dates of their fellowship right away.
If you have already applied for APS's Library & Museum Short-Term Resident Research Fellowships and are working on a topic related to the American Revolution and founding, you will be automatically considered for a David Center Fellowship.
The American Philosophical Society is committed to maintaining the highest standards of scholarly excellence while supporting a working and intellectual environment that fosters an inclusive atmosphere for learning, prizes diverse origins and points of view, advances equal opportunities to learn and communicate, and encourages the widest possible access to its collections. The APS has titled these goals the APS IDEA (Inclusivity, Diversity, Equality, and Access) for its enduring institutional commitment to these values.
Deadline: March 3, 2025 at 11:59 PM Eastern Time. Notifications will be sent in May 2025.
Applicants may be:
- Holders of the Ph.D. or its equivalent.
- Ph.D. candidates who have passed their preliminary examinations and are working on their dissertation research.
- Degreed independent scholars (without current academic affiliation).
- U.S. citizens or foreign nationals. Candidates who live 75 or more miles from Philadelphia receive some preference.
All Applicants must submit:
- A cover letter,
- Curriculum vitae,
- A research proposal (2 pages double-spaced), that outlines the status of your work and what you will research at the American Philosophical Society's Library & Museum. Special attention must be made to specific collections that will be of use during your fellowship.
- Two confidential letters of reference
Current and Past Recipients
Bianca Laliberté, Université du Québec à Montréal (University of Quebec in Montreal), “The American “Indian” in the Eye of the American Revolution: A Critical Inquiry into the American Fabrication of Art History”
Sarah Pearlman Shapiro, Brown University, “Women's Communities of Care in Revolutionary New England”
Dillon Streifeneder, United States Naval Academy (starting fall 2024), “From Jamaica with Reform: Sir Henry Moore’s “Reformation” and the Coming of the Revolution in New York”
Emily Magness, William & Mary, “If you had paid attention, you would know': The Sacred World of Eighteenth-Century Cherokee-Anglo Politics”
Robb Haberman, Fordham University, “The Revolutionary War Memorialist as Editor: The Memoir of James Selkirk”
Sarah Donovan, William and Mary College, “Transplanted Whiteboys and Sons of Paxton: Patterns of Extralegal Violence in the British Atlantic World”
Blake Grindon, Princeton University, “The Death of Jane McCrea: Sovereignty and Violence in the Northeastern Borderlands of the American Revolution”
Grant Stanton, University of Pennsylvania, “The Almost Revolution of 1765: Insults and the Moral History of the Stamp Act Crisis”
Iris de Rode, Université Paris 8, "Military Enlightenment on the Ground"
Susan (Brynne) Long, University of Delaware, “The Disagreeable Situation in Between the Civil and the Military”: Prisoner of War Management in the American Revolution”
Andrea Miles, University of Louisville, "Black Rebels: African American Revolutionaries from North Carolina During and After the War of Independence"
Darcy Stevens, University of Maine, "Allegiance and Neutrality in the American Revolutionary Northeast Borderlands"
Kieran O’Keefe, George Washington University, “Suffering for the Crown: The Hudson Valley Loyalists, Violence, and Forced Migration in Revolutionary North America”
Adam McNeil, Rutgers University, “‘I Would No Go With Him’: Black Women, Liberty, and Loyalism in the Revolutionary Era Mid-Atlantic, 1775-1815”
Keely Smith, Princeton University, “Communicating Power and Sovereignty: Creek and Seminole Communication Networks, 1715-1880”
Helena Yoo Roth, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, "American Timelines: Imperial Communications, Colonial Time-Consciousness, and the Coming of the American Revolution"
Meg Roberts, University of Cambridge, “Domestic Caregiving in the American Revolution”
Robert Wright, Augustana University, “Economic Policy and the American Revolution”
Benjamin Bankhurst, Shepherd University, “Maryland Loyalism Project”
Christopher Pearl, Lycoming College, “The War Executives: Debating and Creating Executive Power During the American Revolutionary War”