2026-2027 Fellowship Applications are open!
The William L. Clements Library is excited to announce that applications for the 2026-2027 Research Fellowships are now open. The Library offers funded research fellowships for a wide array of projects undertaken by graduate students, postdoctoral scholars,...
English Piracy on the Spanish Pacific: William Hacke’s South Sea Waggoners and England’s Imperial Ambitions
Guest post by Juliet Wiersema; 2025-2026 Brian Leigh Dunnigan Fellow; [email protected] Frontispiece Orienting map The large manuscript atlas, A Description of all the Ports … in the South Seas of America … is tied to an infamous tale of Pacific piracy. In...
Clements Library announces 2025-2026 Fellowships
The William L. Clements Library is delighted to announce the awardees for the 2025-26 competition for research fellowships. The 31 projects that have been selected to receive fellowship support will bring scholars at all career stages–from undergraduates to...
Graduate Student Intern Annika Dekker at Ephemera 45
Historic Visual Culture Graduate Assistant Annika Dekker describes her experience attending and speaking at Ephemera 45, the Ephemera Society of America’s annual conference.
“The Sound of Harps Angelical”*: A Celtic Harpist’s Journey through the Collection of the William L. Clements Library
By Alexander Lawrence Ames [Website] Figure 1. Allegorical female figure of America, with a harp. Clad in classical robes, the figure holds a piece of sheet music titled “UNION 1800.” Mezzotint, hand-colored; 30.2 x 25.1 cm. Prints POR.E Ame. [Catalog Record] Come,...
2025-2026 William L. Clements Library Research Fellowships: Apply By January 15th!
The William L. Clements Library offers funded research fellowships for graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, independent researchers, creative artists, and undergraduates who wish to visit the library’s world-class collections of early Americana. Any project that would benefit from in-person access to the Clements Library archives is eligible for consideration, and subjects can include Native American history and culture, the history of science, ephemera, and so much more!
Panting After History
Laramy Fellow Johnathon Beecher Field recounts his visit to the Clements last fall for research for his book, The Objects of Settler Innocence. In this book, he argues that “a constellation of physical objects… work to obscure the realities of settler colonialism for its present-day beneficiaries.” This includes settler kitsch – “the ubiquitous renderings of the Anglo-Indigenous encounter as something that is impossible to take seriously.”
Clements Library announces 2024-2025 Fellowships
The William L. Clements Library is pleased to share the list of fellowship awardees from the 2024-2025 cycle. Thanks to the support of generous donors, the Library was able to provide research funding for 33 projects spanning a diverse range of disciplines, topics, proposed outcomes, and methodologies. Several new opportunities enhanced the slate of fellowship offerings this year, including fellowships for artists, public historians, and other creative professionals.