By Elaine Grublin
Keeping the reader services staff on their toes, three short-term fellows and one New England Regional Fellowship Consortium recipient are in residence at the MHS this February. Here is a look at what they are working on:
Marc Friedlaender Fellowship recipient Marc-William Palen, University of Texas at Austin, arrived early in the month to work on his project “The Cleveland ‘Conspiracy’: Mugwumpery, Free Trade Ideology, and Foreign Policy in Gilded-Age America.” Palen began his visit by working through an impressive list of almost two dozen late 19th century pamphlets, and has been working primarily with the papers of Edward Atkinson for the past week. He also plans to also work with the Henry Cabot Lodge Papers, George Bancroft Papers, and the Adams Family Papers (among others) during his time at the MHS.
Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship recipient Rachel Herrmann, University of Texas at Austin, also arrived at the beginning of the month to delve into “Food and War: Indians, Slaves, and the American Revolution.” In her first two weeks at the MHS Herrmann focused her research in the papers of Henry Knox, William Hudson Ballard, and John Sullivan. This week she has worked with the Society for Propagating the Gospel Among the Indians and Others in North America Records and the microfilm edition of Revolutionary War Orderly Books at the Massachusetts Historical Society . She also plans to consult the Benjamin Lincoln Papers, Timothy Pickering Papers, Moses Greenleaf papers, and several other relevant collections during her visit.
Edward Hanson received the Paine Publication Fund Fellowship to continue his work editing the papers of Robert Treat Paine for publication. During this visit to the MHS library, Hanson, who has been working with the Paine papers since the late 1980s and co-edited with Stephen T. Riley the material for volumes 1 & 2 (1992), and edited volume 3 (2005), has been working with material from the Robert Treat Paine Papers held at the MHS preparing material for the 4th & 5th volumes in the series.
Finally, Joshua Smith, U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, recipient of an award from the New England Regional Fellowship Consortium (NERFC), returned to the MHS this past Monday to complete his fellowship research toward his project, “Yankee Doodle Upset: New England’s Yankee Identity in the War of 1812.” Smith settled into his research consulting the Binney Family Papers and the Orderly Book of the Alfred Company of Cavalry. Later in the week he plans to work with the Vaughn Family Papers and the Caleb Strong Papers. Smith will also be visiting the Maine Historical Society and Mystic Seaport as part of his NERFC fellowship.