The Reese Fellowships

The Reese Fellowships in the Print Culture of the Americas

The Reese Fellowships in the Print Culture of the Americas was established by William Reese Company in l998. These fellowships seek to encourage research in the history of the book and other print formats, bibliography, and all other aspects of print culture in the Americas including publishing and marketing from the 16th century to the present. The fellowships will support individuals pursuing research in these areas at the institutions participating in the fellowship program.

1. Scope of Eligible Projects. The program will support any research work relating to print culture in any part of the Western Hemisphere, or any investigation of the history of the book in the Americas. Projects may investigate any printed genre (e.g. books, prints, newspapers, magazines, pamphlets, photographs intended for publication, broadsides, etc.). They may address any issues of ownership, readership, or use of printed materials or be purely bibliographical. Subject areas might include religion, popular culture, political life, science, music, or specialized forms of printing such as books for the blind. Support for work in manuscript collections will be limited to projects related to printed materials (e.g. annotations in books, publishers' business archives, etc.). They are not intended to support the editing of an author's papers.

The fellowship offered by the Book Arts Press at the University of Virginia differs in scope. It will support a graduate student or beginning antiquarian bookseller during four weeks at the Rare Book School summer session in a position combining staff duties with the opportunity to take an RBS course focusing on Americana themes.

2. Eligibility for Awards. The program is designed to support qualified researchers regardless of academic degree. Some participating institutions, however, may have degree restrictions.

3. Applying for Awards. All awards are made by the fellowship committees of participating institutions or organizations. No awards are made directly by William Reese Company. Applicants should contact directly the institution where they seek a fellowship. All applications and awards will be made within the framework of the existing fellowship programs of the participating institutions. Each award-giving institution must be applied to separately for a research topic at that institution. If applying for a Reese fellowship at more than one institution in one year, this should be clearly stated in the application.

4. Size of Awards. The size of available awards varies, but is generally equivalent to what each institution typically awards for a month of study. Awards may be used to defray travel expenses, living expenses, or research costs. It is assumed that the recipient of the award will be in residence for whatever term is set by the awarding institution.

5. All recipients will be asked to write a brief report for William Reese Company on their research. This may be a copy of any report written for the awarding institution.

Participating Institutions:

American Antiquarian Society
185 Salisbury Street
Worcester, MA 1609-1634
www.americanantiquarian.org/reese.htm

Peter E. Hanff, Deputy Director
The Bancroft Library
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720-6000
phanff@library.berkeley.edu

The Bibliographical Society of America
P.O. Box 1537, Lenox Hill Station
New York, NY 10021
bsa@bibsocamer.org
www.bibsocamer.org
212-734-2500

J. Kevin Graffagnino
William L. Clements Library
University of Michigan
909 S. University Ave.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1190
jkgraff@umich.edu
734-764-2347

Committee on Fellowships
The Huntington
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
cpowell@huntington.org
626-405-2194

Ted Widmer
Director and Librarian
John Carter Brown Library
Box 1894
Providence, RI 02912
Edward_Widmer@brown.edu
401-863-2725

James N. Green, Librarian
Library Company of Philadelphia
1314 Locust Street
Philadelphia, PA 19107
jgreen@librarycompany.org
www.librarycompany.org
215-546-3181

Rare Book School
114 Alderman Library
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA 22904-4103
oldbooks@virginia.edu
www.rarebookschool.org
434-924-8851

Yale University
Fellowship Programs Coordinator
The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
P.O. Box 208240
New Haven, CT 06520-8240
beinecke.fellowships@yale.edu
203-432-4047