Please follow the instructions for the template to prepare your application to the College of Human Ecology Graduate Summer Archival Fellowship. Note: Please submit a notice of interest via email to eek2@cornell.edu by March 14, 2025, indicating: your name, department, and topic of interest. Applications are due by April 7, 2025. See instructions, application document template, and resources below.

Please save your application document as “last name first initial_2025_FellowApp”. E.g., “ChengA_2025_FellowApp”

Email your final application document and your vita to: Eileen Keating eek2@cornell.edu .

Please send this Qualtrics Recommendation Questionnaire to the CHE faculty member who you have asked to recommend you for this fellowship: https://cornell.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3KH9WOp8SG5v0HA .

Note: applications are due: April 7, 2025.

COVER PAGE

Project Title:

Name:

Address:

Email:

Phone:

Reference: Please provide the name and email address of the CHE faculty member who you have asked to complete the Recommendation Questionnaire.

Research abstract: Please provide a 150-200 word research abstract describing the work you propose to complete with this funding. Be sure to indicate your key research question(s), the methods you will use to answer those question, and the outlets through which you will disseminate your work (e.g., conferences, journals, part of thesis/ dissertation).

RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Please provide a 3-5 page research proposal. Be sure to include the following:

• Research: Describe the research topic, state your specific research question or questions within this topic to investigate. Discuss why this is an important area of inquiry. (~2-3 pages)
• Archives: what published and manuscript materials will be used from Cornell’s rare and distinctive collections. See “Resources” below. (.5-1 page)
• Background: what experience has prepared you for this project (.5-1 page)
• How will this fellowship advance your scholarship or support your thesis or dissertation work. (.5-1 page)

Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections (RMC): https://rare.library.cornell.edu/

This major repository, located in the Carl A. Kroch Library, contains over 500,000 printed volumes, more than 80 million manuscripts, and another million photographs, paintings, prints, and other visual media including the records of the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences (AAFCS), formerly the American Home Economics Association (AHEA) and the records of Cornell's New York State College of Human Ecology and the earlier records of the College of Home Economics (1900-1968).

These include:

• administrative records, correspondence and publications tracing the creation and history of the College, including faculty papers, motion picture film, oral histories and audio and video tapes;
• records of research and consultation done throughout the world, such as research on emergency and disaster feeding during the World Wars and international exchange programs for scholars;
• student scrapbooks and records of various student activities; and
• letters written by farmers’ wives describing their lives and work, in response to the Cornell Reading Courses, together with other information on extension and outreach.

Thousands of photographs of students, faculty, buildings, and scenes portray the College from its founding through the present.  Fourteen hundred selected photographs are available online: NYS College of Human Ecology - Historical Photographs .

The history of the college can be found in the College of Human Ecology Centennial Exhibition: From Domesticity to Modernity: What Was Home Economics?

A list of some archival collections pertaining to the field of home economics and human ecology can be found here: https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/browselists/humec.html

For information about the strengths and holdings of the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, contact:

Eileen Keating, College of Human Ecology archivist, eek2@cornell.edu

Mann Library:  https://mann.library.cornell.edu/

Mann Library has a collection over 700,000 volumes, including more than 6,500 journal subscriptions.  Its holdings are especially strong in the areas of nutrition, family studies, and early childhood education. Other areas important to home economics study throughout the century are also well represented.  The library is the host for HEARTH (Home Economics Archive: Research, Tradition and History), a national initiative to preserve the core historical literature of home economics.  

For information about Mann Library's holdings, contact Michael Cook, Environmental Studies Curator, mnc2@cornell.edu