American History Research and Writing Funding
“In the first Place, I advise you to apply to those whom you know will give something; next
to those whom you are uncertain whether they will give any-thing or not; and show them the
List of those who have given; and lastly, do not neglect those who you are sure will give
nothing; for in some of them you may be mistaken.”
-Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography
Funded Archives for Dissertation Research
Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library (for use of Langum Family Papers or the de Mattos
Family Papers) (Springfield, Illinois)
American Antiquarian Society (Worcester)
American Indian Studies Program at Michigan State University Pre-Doctoral Dissertation
Fellowship Award in American Indian Studies (East Lansing) (Finishing Grant)
American Philosophical Society (Philadelphia)
American Society for Eighteenth Century Studies (funds research to a dozen institutions)
Bancroft Library Study Award (Berkeley, CA) (For UC grad students only)
Baylor Institute for Oral History Research Fellowship (Waco, TX)
Beinecke Library (New Haven)
Boston Athenaeum (Boston)
Carl Albert Congressional Research and Studies Center, University of Oklahoma
Center for Historical Research at the Ohio State University (Columbus, OH)
Clark Center Short Term Fellowships (UCLA)
Clements Center for Southwest Studies at Southern Methodist University
Clements Library, Jacob Price Visiting Research (Ann Arbor)
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Fellowship at the Rockefeller Library (Williamsburg)
Cuban Heritage Collection Research Fellowship (U. of Miami)
David Library of the American Revolution (Washington’s Crossing, PA)
Duke University Library (Durham, N.C.)
Emory University Library, Jean Harvey Slappy Research Fellowship (Atlanta)
Filson Historical Society Fellowship (Kentucky)
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Folger Shakespeare Library (Washington D.C.)
Francis A. Countway Library Fellowships in the History of Medicine; Harvard University
(Boston)
Friends of the Longfellow House Research Fellowships (Cambridge)
Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library (Ann Arbor, Michigan)
Gest Fellowship for Quaker Studies (Haverford College)
Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition (Numerous New
England locations)
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History (NYC)
Harry Ransom Library (Texas)
Harry S. Truman Library Institute (Independence, MO)
Herbert Hoover Presidential Library (West Branch, Iowa)
Historic New Orleans Collection; Dianne Woest Fellowship (New Orleans)
Howard Lamar Center for the Study of Frontiers and Borders (New Haven)
Huntington Library (San Marino, CA) (Many of them that range from U.S. Western History,
History of Science, British History, California History))
John Carter Brown Library (Providence, RI) (Many of them)
John F. Kennedy Library (Boston) (Many of them
Kentucky Historical Society (Frankfort, KY)
Kluge Center Fellowships (Washington D.C.)
Lewis Walpole Library Fellowships (Connecticut)
Library Company of Philadelphia (Philadelphia)
Lillian Gary Taylor Fellowship in American Literature (UVA)
Maryland Historical Society (Baltimore, check on funding)
Massachusetts Historical Society (Boston) (Many of them)
McNeil Center for Early American Studies (Philadelphia)
Mount Vernon Hotel Museum & Garden, William Randolph Hearst Fellowships
Nantucket Historical Association E. Geoffrey and Elizabeth Thayer Verney Fellowship
(Nantucket)
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National Maritime Museum Caird Short Term Research Fellowship (Greenwich, U.K.)
National Sporting Library and Museum; John Daniels Fellowship (Horse and Field Sports)
(Middleburg, VA)
Naval War College The Edward S. Miller Research Fellowship in Naval History (Newport,
R.I.)
Newberry Library (Chicago) (Many of them)
New England Regional Fellowship Consortium (New England)
New York Public Library Research Fellowships (NYC)
New York State Archives Larry J. Hackman Research Residency Program (Albany)
North Caroliniana Society Archie K. Davis Fellowships
Peabody Essex Museum Frances E. Malamy Fellowship (Salem, MA)
Philadelphia Area Center for History of Science (PACHS) (sh to use the collections of two
or more institutions in the PACHS consortium.)
Princeton University Library Research Grants (Princeton, N.J.)
Program in Early American Economy and Society at the Library Company (Philadelphia)
Quaker Collection, Haverford College;
Gest Fellowships (Outside Philadelphia)
The Research Center for Urban Cultural History at the University of Massachusetts Boston;
Flaherty Visiting Fellowship
Rockefeller Research Center (Tarrytown, N.Y.)
Roosevelt Institute (Hyde Park, N.Y.)
Smithsonian Institute (Washington D.C.)
-Among others: Latino Studies Fellowship Program
Society of the Cincinnati, Tyree Lamb Fellowship (Washington D.C.)
Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives. (Tennessee)
University of Chicago Special Collections; Robert L. Platzman Memorial Fellowship
University of North Carolina Greensboro University Library
University of Wisconsin, Madison Library Grant-in-Aid
U.S. Army Military History Institute General & Mrs. Matthew B. Ridgway Military History
Research Grant (Carlisle, PA)
Virginia Historical Society (Richmond, VA)
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William Andrews Clark Memorial Library (L. A.)
William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies (Dallas)
Winterthur (Delaware)
White House Historical Association (D.C.)
Yale Center for British Art (New Haven)
Writing Fellowships (Non residential)
Adelle and Erwin Tomash Graduate Fellowship, The Charles Babbage Institute (History of
Computing)
American Association of University Women Fellowships (sorry guys)
American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Dissertation Completion Fellowship
-Those who receive this might also be awarded an ACLS Recent Doctoral Recipients
Fellowship.
American Educational Research Association (AERA) Minority Fellowship (Students from
historically underrepresented groups)
The Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship: Woodrow Wilson
National Fellowship Foundation
The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation (Topics involving violence)
Harry S. Truman Dissertation Year Fellowship (Topic relating to the Truman period)
Jack Henning Scholarship: Fund for Labor, Culture, & History (For UC Grad Students)
Jack Kent Cooke Foundation (dissertation fellowship)
Marcus Garvey Foundation Research Fellowship (Africa and African Diaspora)
National Endowment for the Humanities, Division of Research Programs Fellowship
Awards
*Omohundro Institute Mellon One Year (UNC Press)
Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations Dissertation Fellowship
Pre-Doctoral Residential Fellowships
Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies, University of
Virginia (Charlottesville, VA) (Two Years)
Getty Research Institute Predoctoral Fellowships (L.A.) (Thematic)
Ithaca College Pre-Doctoral Diversity Fellowship (Ithaca, N.Y.)
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McNeil Center for Early American Studies (Philadelphia, P.A.)
Office of History at the National Institutes of Health, Pre-doctoral visiting fellowship
(Bethesda, MD)
Philadelphia Area Center for History of Science (PACHS)
Smithsonian Institution (a number of these)
-Latino Studies Fellowship Program
Travel Grants and Grants-in-Aid
Abba P. Schwartz Research Fellowship, Kennedy Library (immigration, naturalization, or
refugee policy)
Alfred Chandler Jr. Travel Fellowships in Business History
American Historical Association (AHA) Grants (numerous small denominations)
American Indian Graduate Center Fellowships (“An enrolled member of a federally
recognized American Indian or Alaska Native group, or provide documentation of
descendency; possess one-fourth degree federally recognized Indian blood)
American Philosophical Society (Franklin Grants, APS/British Academy Grants, etc.)
American Political Science Association: Minority Fellowships (Stipend grants for minority
students)
American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies Travel Grants
American Society for Legal History, Cromwell Fellowships (Legal History)
APS Franklin Research Grants
Arthur H. Cole Grants in Aid (Economic History)
Barbara Brodie Nursing History Fellowship (“Nurse historians”)
Bibliographical Society of America (multiple small grants)
Boren Graduate Fellowships for International Study
Center for French Colonial Studies Centre pour l’étude du pays des Illinois
Charles Redd Center for Western Studies (Summer money for work on the West)
Chinese Historical Society of Southern California, Irvin R. Lai Memorial Scholarship (for
work on Chinese Americans in Southern California)
Coalition for Western Women's History (CWWH) Irene Ledesma Prize (Women and
Gender in the American West)
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Conference on Latin American History James R. Scobie Award
Coordinating Council for Women in History Prizes (for members)
Council of American Overseas Research Centers
Council on Library and Information Resources, Mellon Fellowships for Dissertation
Research in Original Sources (Full year)
Cushwa Center Grants in Aid (Catholic History)
Donald Groves Fund, American Numismatic Society (Don’t laugh, they gave me $500)
Early American Industries Association Research Grants (Grant in aid)
Everett McKinley Dirksen Congressional Leadership Research Center Congressional
Research Awards (work on Congress but don’t have to go to Congress)
Fulbright Scholar Program (to go outside U.S.; Includes Caribbean) *Early Deadline
George C. Marshall/Baruch Fellowships (doctoral or postdoctoral research in 20th-century
U.S. military or diplomatic history and related fields)
Harvard Atlantic Seminar Grants in Aid
Haynes Foundation (Research in L.A.)
Hispanic Scholarship Fund (Financial aid for Latino students)
Immigration and Ethnic History Society, George E. Pozzetta Dissertation Award (American
immigration, emigration, or ethnic history)
Institute for Political History, Thomas H. Critchlow Award (Pre-20th Century Politics)
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Hugh Davis Graham Award (20th Century)
Jacob K. Javits Fellowships
Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities (Projects on Louisiana)
Mark DeWolfe Howe Fund, Harvard Law School (Legal History)
Marine Corps Heritage Foundation (work about Marines)
Marine Corps History Division, Master's Thesis Fellowships (U.S. Military History)
McColl Family Fellowship, American Geographical Society (pays for you to go somewhere
and then you write about that place)
Naval History and Heritage Command, Department of the Navy; Rear Admiral John D.
Hayes Pre-Doctoral Fellowship in U.S. naval history
New Jersey Historical Commission Mini Grants (But to New Jersey)
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North American Conference on British Studies Fellowship
North Caroliniana Society Archie K. Davis Fellowships (But to N.C.)
Order Sons of Italy in America (Must have one Italian or Italian American grandparent)
Organization of American Historians (OAH) (Multiple Awards and Grants including)
- Huggins-Quarles Award (Minority students)
Rhode Island Council for the Humanities Independent Research Mini-Grants (To R.I.)
Shui Kuen and Allen Chin Scholarship (“Self or parent currently or formerly employed at an
Asian-owned or Asian cuisine restaurant;” Seriously)
The Smith Richardson Foundation: World Politics and Statecraft Fellowship ($7,500 each)
Social Science Research Council (SSRC) (Grants in aid)
Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (A number of these)
Society for the History of Technology: The Hindle Fellowship ($10,000, no questions asked)
Theodore C. Sorensen Research Fellowship, Kennedy Library (domestic policy, political
journalism, polling, press relations or a related topic)
TIAA-CREF Ruth Simms Hamilton Research Fellowship (Research on African Diaspora)
Travel Grants for Jefferson Related Projects (Through Monticello) (They have lots of money
for anything with the name “Jefferson” in it)
UNC Center for Study of the American South (Chapel Hill)
Weatherhead Center for International Affairs (at Harvard)
UCSD Specific
Fletcher Jones Fellowship
Frieda Daum Urey Academic Fellowship (Faculty Nominated)
Friends of the International Center Scholarships
Interdisciplinary Humanities Center (Not sure if it is all the UC’s)
J. M. Hepps Graduate Fellowship (for people within two years of completing the Phd.)
Millennium Momentum Foundation Best and Brightest Scholarship Program
UC MEXUS (Mexico / U.S. related topics) (Also summer research)
UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship (2nd year renewable)
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UC Humanities Research Institute (multiple fellowships)
UCSD Interdisciplinary Collaboratories funding
Postdoctoral Fellowships (Residency one year or more)
An “*” denotes postdoc comes with book commitment or right of first refusal.
Those in bold include fellowships all early American historians should and can apply
to regardless of topic based on prestige and networking possibilities)
Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Humboldt Research Fellowship (Germany, a friend
of mine did this and his work has nothing to do with Germany)
American Academy of Arts and Sciences Visiting Scholars Program (Cambridge)
American Antiquarian Society NEH and Mellon (Worcester)
American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) New Faculty Fellowships (One year for
people who completed the Phd but were unsuccessful in obtaining a tenure track position)
American Indian Studies Program, Michigan State (no real $)
American Philosophical Society (Philadelphia)
American Society for Eighteenth Century Studies (Sponsors postdocs at numerous
institutions)
Cambridge University: Mellon Research Fellowship in American History (England)
Cambridge University Junior Research Fellowships (Churchill College, Fitzwilliam College
and Trinity Hall)
Canadian Government Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship (U.S. citizens have to be housed in
a Canadian University)
Carolina Postdoctoral Fellowship Program for Faculty Diversity (Two years)
Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies, University of
Virginia (Two years teaching)
Cassius Marcellus Clay Postdoctoral Fellowship Yale University (New Haven)
Center for Historical Research at the Ohio State University (Columbus, OH) (*Thematic)
Center for the Study of the American South Postdoctoral Fellowship (UNC)
Charles Warren Center Fellows (Harvard) (Thematic)
Clark Center Postdoctoral Fellowships (UCLA)
Columbia University Society of Fellows (NYC, 3 year renewable)
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Cornell Society for the Humanities Postdoctoral Fellowships (Ithica)
C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience Patrick Henry Visiting
Fellowship (Maryland)
Dartmouth College: Leslie Center for the Humanities Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship
Folger Shakespeare Library (Washington D. C.)
Frederick Douglass Institute for African and African American Studies, University of
Rochester Postdoctoral Fellowships (Rochester, NY)
Getty Research Institute Postdoctoral Fellowships (L.A.) (Thematic)
Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition (New England)
*Gilder Lehrman Junior Research Fellowship (Monticello, Virginia) (UVA Press)
Harry Ransom Library (Texas)
Harvard Expository Writing Program
Harvard History and Literature Concentration
-Summer School
-Freshman Seminar Program
Harvard Humanities Center (Harvard)
Harvard-Newcomen Postdoctoral Fellowship (Business School)
Harvard Society of Fellows (3 years) (Cambridge)
Haverford College: John B. Hurford Humanities Center Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship
Hodson Trust – John Carter Brown Fellowship (2 months at the Starr Center in Maryland
and 2 months at the JCB in Providence, RI)
Howard Lamar Center for the Study of Frontiers and Borders (New Haven)
Huntington Library NEH and Mellon (San Marino, CA)
Institute of Historical Research (University of London)
Institute for Legal Studies, University of Wisconsin Law School Law & Society PostDoctoral Fellowship (Wisconsin)
John Carter Brown Library NEH (Providence, RI)
John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute (Duke University) (Thematic)
Johns Hopkins Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship
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Kluge Center Fellowships (Washington D.C.)
Library Company of Philadelphia (Philadelphia)
Mark DeWolfe Howe Fund, Harvard Law School (Cambridge)
Massachusetts Historical Society NEH (Boston)
McNeil Center for Early American Studies NEH (Two years) (U. Penn Press often
publishes their books)
National Endowment for the Humanities, Division of Research Programs Fellowship
Awards
National Maritime Museum Caird Senior Research Fellowship (Greenwich, U.K.)
Newberry Library NEH (Chicago)
New-York Historical Society & The New School Schwartz Postdoctoral Fellows Program at
the Eugene Lang College of New School University (NYC)
*Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture NEH (Two years)
(Williamsburg) (UNC Press)
Oxford University Junior Research Fellowship
Patrick Henry Fellowship, Johns Hopkins University (Two years)
Penn Humanities Forum Mellon Postdoc (Thematic)
President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program for the University of California (outstanding
women and minority Phd’s from the UC system)
Princeton University Society of Fellows (Three years and lots of money)
*Program in Early American Economy and Society at the Library Company
(Philadelphia) (John Hopkins Press)
Raoul Berger Fellowship in Legal History, Harvard Law School (Cambridge)
The Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center (In Italy, fantasy land)
Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis Fellowships (Thematic)
School for Advanced Research (Santa Fe, New Mexico)
Schlesinger Library Research Grant (Harvard)
Society for the Humanities, Cornell University Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowships
Stanford Humanities Fellows
Tufts University Center for the Humanities (CHAT) Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship
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UC MEXUS: Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for University of California Phds in
Mexican universities.
UNC Center for Study of the American South (Chapel Hill)
United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney (Australia)
University of California Humanities Research Institute
University of Hong Kong School of Humanities Society of Scholars (Two Years and lots of
money)
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Postdoctoral Fellowship in African American
Studies
University of Michigan Society of Fellows
University of Pennsylvania, Integrated Studies Program (One year lectureship with
possibility of renewal)
USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute (Two years) (LA)
Wesleyan University Center for the Humanities Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship
William Andrews Clark Memorial Library (LA)
Winterthur NEH (Delaware)
Yale University Program in Agrarian Studies Visiting Research Fellowships
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