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White House History Fellowships White House History Fellowships 2007 Recipients White House History Fellowships 2006 Recipients White House History Fellows 2005 Recipient White House History Fellowships 2004 Recipients White House History Fellowship 2003 Recipients The White House Historical Association and the Organization of American Historians seek proposals for research projects focusing on the roles of the White House as home, workplace, museum, structure, and symbol. Teachers and scholars whose work enhances understanding of how the White House functions in its several capacities and of life and work at all levels within the walls of the President's House are encouraged to apply. (Studies that deal primarily with political or governmental policy issues would not be appropriate for this program, but ones concerning the operation of the White House as a political institution would be considered.) In an effort to reach a number of learning communities, the cosponsors offer three fellowships:
Awards are $2000/month. We will consider proposals for fellowships lasting one to six months. To apply, please send the following items as an MS-Word or Rich Text Format (RTF) format file to whfapps07@lists.oah.org by December 1, 2007: 1. C.V. or resume; 2. A two-page summary of your project including the proposed final product of the research and timetable; 3. Three professional references; 4. A modest travel stipend is also available. If interested, submit a travel budget as well. Please send materials to: White House Historical Association Fellowship Organization of American Historians 112 North Bryan Avenue PO Box 5457 Bloomington, IN 47408-5457 Committee members are: Luisa E. Bonillas, Arizona State University Dickson D. Bruce Jr., University of California, Irvine Eve Carr, Cape Fear Museum Randall M. Miller, Saint Joseph's University Lee Ann Potter, National Archives and Records Administration John P. Riley, White House Historical Association John H. Sprinkle, Jr., National Park Service (Committee Chair) Awards will be announced prior to the OAH annual meeting each spring. 2007 Recipients White House History Research Fellowships for scholars pursuing projects that illuminate the historical roles of the White House as home, workplace, museum, structure and symbol. Kimberly Ann Hyde, Case Western Reserve University, "Louis Comfort Tiffany and the White House" White House History Fellowships in Precollegiate Education for White House and presidential history initiatives that reach the K-12 classroom. Glenda Armand Sheppard, Los Angeles Unified School District, California, "Frederick Douglass: From Slave Cabin to the White House" Michelle L. Pearson, Hulstrom Options at Rocky Top Middle School, Thornton, Colorado, and Christopher T. Jennings, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., "Using Google Earth to Track the Mobile White House" 2006 Recipients White House History Research Fellowships for scholars pursuing projects that illuminate the historical roles of the White House as home, workplace, museum, structure and symbol. Pamela Scott, Independent Scholar, "Designated for Public Purposes: The Evolution of Lafayette Square" Catherine Clinton, Writer, "Mrs. Lincoln" White House History Fellowships in Precollegiate Education for White House and presidential history initiatives that reach the K-12 classroom. Susan Hamilton Mitchell, Oceanside (CA) Unified School District, "Encounters at the White House: The President and Native American Delegations (1850-1865)" 2005 Recipient White House History Fellows in PreCollegiate Education L. Mark Sweeney, Cactus Shadows High School, Cave Creek, Arizona. “The Presidency and the Press: An Examination of Spin.” Concentrating on the reelection campaigns of 1984 through 2004, Sweeney will create a curriculum unit that will focus on the codependent relationship of the president and the press. Sweeney will examine the evolution of the news conference at the White House and other venues for parrying between the media and the chief executive. Daily diaries, press conference transcriptions, historic photographs, and other materials will supplement this project for high school American history and government classes. Activities will also help students understand the media’s role in defining, presenting, and filtering presidential candidates. 2004 Recipients White House History Fellowship in PreCollegiate Education Sally Sims Stokes, Independent Scholar. “White House Workers.” Stokes will mine interviews in the archives at the Smithsonian’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage to create an online exhibit of the behind-the-scenes efforts of White House residence staff. Activities will urge the analysis of White House protocol and the workers as de facto (and multi-generational) family. Recollections – both transcribed and presented via audio and video – will be presented on the Web and a classroom component will be created to supplement a traveling exhibit. White House History Fellowship in Public History Rick Potter, Curator of Collections, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library at his Birthplace. “Woodrow Wilson’s West Wing.” Potter will examine the political and architectural history of Wilson’s West Wing for a permanent exhibit at the Staunton, Virginia museum. World War I brought the first crisis center in the West Wing, Wilson held the first formal presidential press conferences, and Ellen Wilson’s impact was seen in the development of the landscape, particularly the Rose Garden. 2003 Recipients For White House and presidential history initiatives that reach the K-12 classroom Jane Cook, Independent Author, "Bear Cubs for Mr. Jefferson: White House Moments and American Changes." Cook will write a book of historical sketches for ages 8 to 13 on important historical events that emanated from the White House. Original research into these moments will be complemented by interviews of descendants and former White House staff. The books chapters will span nearly 200 years and explore major themes in American history through the experiences of America's leaders, e.g., "Abe's Signature and Handshake" (Emancipation Proclamation) and "Dolley's Rescue" (War of 1812). Michelle Pearson, Annunciation School, Denver, CO, "A Visit with History: A Lesson Collection Used to Teach the Journal, White House History." This project will develop lessons to be used in conjunction with an illustrated scholarly journal. Units will be aimed at grades 7-12, making use of new work on the history of the White House and making it available to a classroom audience. Two workshops will follow in the Denver area providing integration of White House studies while adhering to district and state standards. Further, Pearson has obtained matching funds from a foundation source that will help teachers purchase the journal issues and supplemental materials. In addition, through an educational network, Classroom Connection, the lessons may be disseminated through nine western states. Fellowships for scholars pursuing projects that illuminate the historical roles of the White House as home, workplace, museum, structure and symbol. Eleanor Alexander, Georgia Institute of Technology, "Slaves in the White House." This topic for a monograph examines the lives, culture, and experiences of slaves who lived and worked in the Executive Mansion, from George Washington to Zachary Taylor. Scholarly attention to the topic has been scant. Alexander takes on the challenge of documenting the lives of enslaved domestic staff removed from plantation culture to the urban environment of the nation's capital. In addition, she will examine the reaction from domestic and international figures to the use of slaves in the President's House, a weighty republican symbol. Natalie Dykstra, Hope College, "On Stage at the Lincoln White House: Performing Freedom in Elizabeth Keckley's Behind the Scenes." Keckley, a former slave who worked as a modiste for Mary Lincoln, wrote an autobiography that has been cited frequently as source material for the Lincoln White House. Dykstra, however, hopes to look beyond the first family to Keckley's own story of autonomy and economic accomplishment. The project examines how Keckley joined her claims for personal freedom to the symbolic power of the White House and how, from this national stage, she testified to a larger story about African-American women and their complex relationship to freedom, work, and self-representation during and after the Civil War. Dykstra will also try to determine if Keckley's profits from this "tell-all" White House memoir were tied to her efforts to fund the First Black Contraband Relief Organization, which she founded. C. M. Harris, Independent Scholar, "Documentary Social History of the Jefferson White House." Harris will initiate the collection of primary source material in an effort to make available a finding aid for the period 1800-1809. He will identify, calendar and collect copies of manuscripts, printed period letters, memoranda and diary entries. Harris contends that modern scholars have not sufficiently appreciated Jefferson's transformation of the Presidential "Palace" of Washington and L'Enfant into the President's (and People's) House of Jefferson. His effort will be to collect in one place those sources apart from Jefferson's purposeful political correspondence that may, upon analysis, shed light on Jefferson's efforts to establish a new, principled standard of behavior among elite citizens of the new Republic. David Krugler, University of Wisconsin, Platteville, "The D-Minus Scenario: How Washington, D.C. Prepared for Nuclear War." As part of a new book on how the nation's capital readied itself for an attack between WWII and the Cuban Missile Crisis, Krugler is studying White House emergency planning and the structure's symbolic significance during the Cold War. Within his analysis of continuity of government measures, Krugler will explore the crafting of attack and post-attack scenarios, which agencies influenced decisions on the White House bomb shelter, and other structural safeguards, and who would be essential to carry on the tasks of the chief executive from the seat of government. Edward Robinson, Pembroke College, University of Oxford, "A Press Photographer in the White House: Frances Benjamin Johnston, 1889-1905." This fellowship supports research for a dissertation on pioneering photojournalist Johnston who created a visual biography of the White House at the turn of the 20th century. Johnston enjoyed "behind-the-scenes" access to the places and figures of the White House. First families, executive staff, domestic staff, and architectural interiors were captured by Johnston and she fed an explosion of illustrated newspapers and magazines. Robinson will explore how the White House understood the role of photography (and its political uses) and its relation to the press a century ago. |
