Deadline: 15 March 2011
Open to: historians, librarians, doctoral students, and post-doctoral scholars
Stipend: up to $3,500 per month
The Baird Society Resident Scholar Program was established to support the study of some of SI Libraries’ most unique and valuable holdings: its Special Collections.
Applicants must have serious interests that relate to materials in the special collections held by the Smithsonian Institution Libraries, which include:
* 19th- and early 20th-century World’s Fair printed materials
* Manufacturers’ commercial trade catalogs in the National Museum of American History Library (285,000 pieces representing 30,000 companies from the 1840’s to the present) used to study American industrialization, mass production, and consumerism
* Natural history rare books in the Cullman Library (pre-1840 works on topics such as botany, zoology, travel & exploration, museums & collecting, geology, and anthropology)
* Air and space history in the National Air and Space Museum Library’s Ramsey Room for the study of ballooning, rocketry, and aviation from the late 18th to early 20th centuries
* James Smithson’s library in the Cullman Library
* European and American decorative arts, architecture, and design in the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum Library’s Bradley Room, which span from the 18th to the 20th century
* History of art and artists, exhibition catalogs, catalogs raisonné, serials and dissertations concentrated in the area of American art, history, biography and nearly 100,000 vertical files filled with artists’ ephemera
Eligibility
Open to historians, librarians, doctoral students, and post-doctoral scholars.
Application
Download the application form, and mailed via USPS to our P.O. Box:
Smithsonian Institution Libraries
Resident Scholar Programs
Selection Committee
P.O. Box 37012 NMAH 1041 MRC 672
Washington, DC 20013-7012
Do not forget to also submit
* Research proposal
* Curriculum vitae
* Two letters of reference
Fellowship
The stipend of $3,500 a month can be used for any purpose, including travel to Washington and New York, and for accommodation. Each award lasts for a period of one to six months, during which the applicant is expected to spend most of the time in residence at the Smithsonian Institution Libraries.
Contact
Head, Special Collections
P.O. Box 37012
NMAH 1041, MRC 672
Washington, D.C. 20013-7012
Telephone: 202-633-3872
Email: SILResidentScholars@si.edu