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Information > Fellowship Information

  1. Introduction
  2. Visiting fellowships
  3. Summer fellowships for graduate students at Yale
  4. Mailing address
  5. Recipients

Introduction

The Library, a department of the Yale University Library located in Farmington, Connecticut, forty miles from New Haven, has significant holdings of eighteenth-century prints, drawings, manuscripts, books, and paintings. It is able to support advanced research in most aspects of British eighteenth-century studies. The Library offers visiting fellowships, normally for four weeks, as well as travel grants of lesser duration, to scholars engaged in post-doctoral or equivalent research and to doctoral candidates at the dissertation stage. In a typical year the Library awards up to a dozen fellowships and travel grants. Fellows in residence also have access to additional materials at Yale, including those at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library and the Yale Center for British Art. Summer fellowships for graduate students at Yale are also offered.

The Library’s unrivaled collection of Walpoliana includes three-quarters of the traceable volumes from Horace Walpole’s famous library at Strawberry Hill and many letters and other manuscripts by him. Its book and manuscript collections of considerable depth cover all aspects of eighteenth-century British culture: theater, literature, politics, history, art history, antiquarianism, scientific history, and many other fields. Materials include books, pamphlets, broadsheets, periodicals, and almanacs, and there is a particularly fine collection of extra-illustrated books. The Manuscript collection holds international diplomatic correspondence, Exchequer account books, and literary manuscripts: parliamentary, personal, and travel diaries; and cookbooks. The Library is also the home of the world’s largest and finest collection of eighteenth-century British graphic art outside the British Museum. Indexed in great detail, its 35,000 satirical prints, portraits, and topographical views are an incomparable and easily accessible resource of visual material on every aspect of English eighteenth-century life. The Walpole Digital Library, which holds close to 10,000 images from the Library's collection of prints and drawings, is available for consultation both on site and remotely. Online access to Yale’s catalogs and information sources is provided, and the Library offers a wide range of specialized indices.

Self-catering accommodation is available to visiting researchers in an adjacent historic house belonging to the Library.

Visiting fellowships

The Library offers short-term residential fellowships and travel grants to support research in the Library's rich collections of eighteenth-century--mainly British--materials, including important holdings of prints, drawings, manuscripts, rare books, and paintings, as well as a growing collection of sources for the study of New England Native Americans.

Scholars undertaking post-doctoral or equivalent research, and doctoral candidates at work on a dissertation, are encouraged to apply. Recipients are expected to be in residence at the Library, to be free of other significant professional obligations during their stay, and to focus their research on the Lewis Walpole Library's collections. Fellows also have access to additional resources at Yale, including those in the Sterling Memorial Library, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, and the Yale Center for British Art.

Lewis Walpole Library fellowships, usually for one month, include the cost of travel to and from Farmington, accommodation in an eighteenth-century house on the Library's campus, and a living allowance stipend (currently $1,800). The Library's travel grants typically cover transportation costs for research trips of shorter duration and also include accommodation on site.

To apply for a fellowship or travel grant, candidates should send a curriculum vitae, including educational background, professional experience and publications, and a brief outline of the research proposal (not to exceed three pages) to:

The Librarian
The Lewis Walpole Library
P.O. Box 1408
Farmington, CT 06034
USA

Fax: 860-677-6369

Two confidential letters of recommendation are also required by  the application deadline, which is January 16, 2009. Awards will be announced in March.

Summer fellowships for graduate students at Yale

A Templar At His StudiesThe Lewis Walpole Library offers summer fellowships to students enrolled in doctoral programs at Yale University who wish to pursue dissertation research in the Lewis Walpole collections.

Ordinarily, fellowships will be granted to students who have completed their course work, have passed their qualifying examinations, and are prepared to pursue research for the dissertation, typically after the third year of study.

Graduate Fellows are required to be in residence either for eight weeks or for four weeks during the months of June, July, and August. A stipend of $3,900 is provided for an eight-week period, and of $1,950 for a four-week period.

There is no application form. Applicants are asked to submit the following materials to the Librarian of the Lewis Walpole Library: a résumé, a brief research proposal (not to exceed three pages), and an approved dissertation prospectus or equivalent statement outlining the scope of the doctoral thesis. The proposal should explain the relationship between the Lewis Walpole collections and the applicant's dissertation research. Only students whose research depends on extensive use of materials in the Lewis Walpole Library will be considered for these awards.

The applicant must also arrange to have two confidential letters of recommendation sent to the Librarian, one of which should come from the applicant's dissertation advisor.

For more information, call or send email to the Librarian (860 677-2140; walpole@yale.edu).

Mailing address for application materials

Margaret Powell, Librarian
The Lewis Walpole Library
P.O. Box 1408
Farmington, CT 06034

Fax: 860-677-6369

More information about the scope of the collections may be obtained by calling the Librarian at 860-284-5025 or 860-677-2140, or by e-mail: walpole@yale.edu

FELLOWSHIPS ANNOUNCED

The Lewis Walpole Library’s is delighted to announce the recipients of Fellowships for the 2008-2009 academic year. This year, thirteen Fellowships were awarded.

For a full list of Fellowships for 2008-2009, click here.

Recipients

2008 Fellowship and Grant Awards
2007 Fellowship and Grant Awards
2005 Fellowship and Grant Awards
2004 Fellowship and Grant Awards
2003 Fellowship and Grant Awards
2002 Fellowship and Grant Awards
2001 Fellowship and Grant Awards

   
   
   
   
   
   
 
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This file last modified:
09/26/08
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