The Filson Historical Society’s fellowships encourage the scholarly use of the Filson’s nationally significant collections by providing support for travel and lodging. Fellows are expected to be in continuous residence at the Filson. Application deadlines are twice per year, February 15 and October 15.
The Filson is Kentucky’s largest privately supported historical society with research collections documenting the history and culture of Kentucky, the Ohio Valley, and the Upper South. The collections include rare books, maps, and 2.1 million manuscripts in addition to extensive collections for the late-nineteenth and twentieth centuries. A large nineteenth-century portrait collection as well as over 100,000 photographs and fine prints provide visual images for all periods. The online research tools can be explored here.
Areas of collections strength include:
- Trans-Appalachian Frontier
- Lewis & Clark Expedition
- African American History
- Civil War & Memory
- Southern Jewish History
- Agriculture & the Environment
- Architecture & Material Culture
- Gilded Age and Progressive-era
- Suffrage and Women’s Rights
- Transportation History
- Urban History
The Filson anticipates that fellows will publish the results of their research in Ohio Valley History, a peer-reviewed journal published jointly by the Filson, the Cincinnati Museum Center, and the University of Cincinnati.
Please contact gro.l1601540561aciro1601540561tsihn1601540561oslif1601540561@spih1601540561swoll1601540561ef1601540561 with any questions concerning the Fellowship programs. Full application instructions can be found here. To view a list of accommodations close to The Filson, click here.
Filson Fellowships are made possible in part by the Bullitt Homestead Preservation Trust and the Boehl Trust.
Fellowship Types
MASTER’S THESIS FELLOWSHIPS
Eligibility: M.A. candidate at the thesis stage.
Full support of a single $500 award is available for a one-week fellowship period to encourage use of our research collections by M.A. students developing and researching thesis topics. Partial support is available for students residing in Kentucky who travel from outside the greater Louisville area.
FILSON FELLOWSHIPS
Eligibility: ABD, Ph.D., or holder of an equivalent terminal degree
Full awards are $500 per week and may be awarded for up to two weeks. Awards must be used within eighteen months of their receipt. Partial support is available for scholars residing nearby who travel from outside the greater Louisville area.
BALLARD BREAUX VISITING FELLOWSHIPS
Eligibility: Ph.D. or holders of an equivalent terminal degree
Full support of $2,000 for scholars living outside of Kentucky is available for a one-month residence. Partial support is available for scholars residing nearby who travel from outside the greater Louisville area. Applicants for Breaux Visiting Fellowships are automatically considered for Filson Fellowships.
2019 Spring Filson Fellowship Awards Recipients
Filson Fellowships
Mr. Peter J. DeCarlo, Research Historian, Minnesota Historical Society, “Trans-Mississippi Borderlands: George Rogers Clark and the Gallo-American Conspiracy, 1793-1794”
Mr. Steve Gallo, Ph.D. candidate, The University of Nottingham, “A Central Park of Their Own: Urban Parks and the New South Movement, 1865-1900”
Dr. Jeffrey Smith, Professor of History, Lindenwood University, “Cemeteries and Collective Memory in the Ohio Valley”
Ms. Laura Smith, Ph. D. Candidate, University of Arkansas, “Southern Doctors from Southern Communities: Medical Education and Professionalization in the Nineteenth-Century South”
Ms. Cassandra Jane Werking, Ph. D. Candidate, University of Kentucky, “Is My North Star also Your North Star? How Borderland Between Canada and the United States Shaped the American Civil War”
Dr. Emily West, Professor of American History, University of Reading, “Food, Power, and Resistance in U.S. Slavery”
2019 Fall Filson Fellowship Awards Recipients
Filson Fellowships
Michael Patrick Cullinane, University of Roehampton, “’What is Whiskey’ and the Transnational Search for Standards”
Lee Farrow, Auburn University at Montgomery, “The Uneasy Path of Russian-American Relations: The American Visit of Russian Grand Duke Alexis (1871-72) and its Larger Implications”
Keith Harris, Ph.D. Candidate Purdue University, “Creative Protection: Capitalism and Governmental Authority in U.S. Tariff Politics, 1789-1860”
Amanda Higgins, Kentucky Historical Society, “The Uses and Misuses of Citizenship in the Ohio Valley”
Jessica Roney, Temple University, “Revolutionary Settlement: The Colonies of the American Revolution, 1763-1815″
