FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | May 19, 2006 |
Contact: Carol Anne Baker, Media Relations Specialist
(804) 342-9665 email:
cabaker@vahistorical.org
REVOLUTION, BACHELORHOOD, AND JAZZ—VIRGINIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY ANNOUNCES RESEARCH FELLOWSHIPS FOR 2006
Richmond, VA – How would you have reacted to the Stamp Act? What was it like to be a bachelor in early America? Is there a jazz heritage outside of New Orleans? This year's Mellon Fellows are determined to answer all these questions and more.
More than thirty researchers from thirteen U.S. states, Canada, England, Spain, and Mexico will come to the Virginia Historical Society (VHS) this summer to conduct research on topics ranging from daily life for free and enslaved blacks, archaeology in the Blue Ridge Mountains, an infamous Virginia murderess, and jazz music in Virginia. The researchers are part of the Mellon Fellowship program that awards stipends to doctoral students and other scholars for up to three weeks of research at the VHS. "I am always impressed with the range of topics motivating the research of today's academics and historians," said Frances S. Pollard, director of library services and senior librarian. "My staff and I enjoy working with the Mellon Fellows because it is an opportunity for us to learn something new from our collections as well."
The Mellon Fellowship program, now in its nineteenth year, was initially endowed by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in 1988. Since then, contributions from other sources have enabled the VHS to create three additional fellowships: the Frances Lewis Fellowships in women's studies, the Betty Sams Christian Fellowships in business history, and the Reese Fellowships in American Bibliography and the History of the Book in the Americas. More than 470 researchers have received fellowships since the program's inception.
VIRGINIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY MELLON FELLOWSHIP RECIPIENTS FOR 2006
Matthew Mace Barbee of Bowling Green State University, for research on the history and historical memory of Richmond's Monument Avenue, from the end of the World War II through the unveiling of the Arthur Ashe Monument.
Jodi A. Barnes of American University, for research on the historical archaeology of tenant farming in the Brown Mountain Creek area of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Joshua Beatty of the College of William and Mary, for research to develop a cultural history of the Stamp Act Crisis.
David A. Brown of the College of William and Mary, for research on the changing landscapes of southeastern Chesapeake plantations, particularly the Fairfield plantation in Gloucester.
Kevin Butterfield of Washington University, for research on Americans' proclivity for voluntary associations in the early to middle nineteenth century.
William J. Campbell of McMaster University Ontario, Canada, for research on the varied interests of the parties involved in the 1768 Treaty at Fort Stanwix regarding land in the Ohio River Valley.
Benjamin L. Carp of the University of Edinburgh, for research on the use of pyromachy during the Revolutionary War—its impact on military strategy, civilians' political allegiances, and the collective memory of the war.
Katherine Chilton of Carnegie Mellon University, for research on the gender and labor relations of both free and enslaved African Americans in Richmond, comparing the dynamics before and after Emancipation.
Karen L. Cox of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, for research on Confederate culture from the late nineteenth century through World War II.
Wayne K. Durrill of the University of Cincinnati, for research on Nat Turner and the Southampton Slave Insurrection..
Glenn T. Eskew of Georgia State University, for research on jazz lyricist Johnny Mercer and jazz music in Virginia.
Ellen Eslinger of Depaul University, for research on free black society in rural Virginia from the early to middle nineteenth century.
Kali N. Gross of Drexel University, for research on the early life of Mary Hannah Tabbs, a native Virginian, who stood trial for committing a horrific and notorious murder in 1887 Philadelphia.
Gerardo Gurza-Lavalle of the Instituto Mora, Mexico City, for research into a variety of early nineteenth-century reform initiatives put forth in an effort to "modernize" Virginia slavery.
Uriel Heyd of Royal Holloway, University of London, for research on the dynamics and "mental topography" of the eighteenth-century press via a comparative examination of English and colonial newspapers.
Warren R. Hofstra of Shenandoah University, for a study of the wheat economy in the Shenandoah Valley.
Thomas J. Humphrey of Cleveland State University, for research on the development and dynamics of land tenancy in Virginia during the Revolutionary era.
William P. Hustwit of the University of Mississippi, for research on James J. Kilpatrick's life, role in the Civil Rights movement, and views on segregation.
Charles F. Irons of Elon University, for research on Virginia black evangelicals' influence on their white coreligionists in the nineteenth century.
Jeffrey Kosiorek of the University of Southern California, for research on Revolutionary War commemoration in nineteenth-century America.
Angela M. Leonard of Loyola College in Maryland, for research on the Virginia gravesites of enslaved people of African descent.
John G. McCurdy of Eastern Michigan University, for research on the politics of bachelorhood in early America.
Gregory Mixon of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, for research on black southern militias in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia during the period 1865 to 1910.
Diane Mutti-Burke of the University of Missouri–Kansas City, for research on Paulina and Thomas Stratton, slave owners in Salem, Virginia who migrated to central Missouri, in preparation for the publication of Paulina Stratton's diary.
Elizabeth Pryor Minister Plenipotentiary and Senior Advisor to the U.S. Congress, Washington, D.C., for research on Robert E. Lee's correspondence to investigate his attitudes toward slavery, his marriage, and his decision to fight for the Confederacy.
Justin Roberts of Johns Hopkins University, for research on enslaved peoples' work regimes on Chesapeake plantations in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
Daniel Rood of the University of California at Irvine, for research on the slave labor that drove antebellum southern ironworks and the ironworks' role in America's expanding international business interests.
J. L. Calvin Schermerhorn of the University of Virginia, for research on how enslaved people in the Virginia Chesapeake resisted family disruption caused by slave trafficking in the antebellum period.
Yael A. Sternhell of Princeton University, for research on the human mobility that rapidly accelerated in the South, particularly Virginia, during the Civil War.
Eric Taylor of the University of Pennsylvania, for research on the relationship between historical memory and political struggle in Virginia from 1865 to 1902.
Joan-Maria Thomas-Andreu of the Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain, for research on Alexander Weddell’s ambassadorship to Spain and his role in U.S./Spain relations at the onset of World War II.
Robert E. Wright of New York University, for research on holders of the U.S. national debt who registered their bonds in Virginia in the 1790s and early nineteenth century.
The Virginia Historical Society is located at 428 N. Boulevard. The Story of Virginia, An American Experience,
a 10,000-square-foot exhibition with more than a thousand objects covering all of Virginia history from prehistoric
times to the present is featured in the Robins Center for Virginia History. Hours: Monday-Saturday 10am - 5pm
and Sunday 1pm - 5pm (Museum Galleries only). Admission: $5/adults, $4/seniors 55+ ($2/Tuesdays–galleries
only), $3/children and students, free/members. Admission to the galleries is free on Sundays. For group tour
information, call (804) 342-9652. For more information, please call (804) 358-4901 or visit
www.vahistorical.org.
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