Fellowships in Historical Geography and History of Cartography via NERFC
The Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library and the Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education at the University of Southern Maine invite historical geographers, historians of cartography, and scholars working in related fields to apply for fellowships in the 2020–2021 New England Regional Fellowship Consortium (NERFC). The NERFC fellowship offers two dozen awards of $5000 to spend at least two weeks at three Consortium member institutions. The Leventhal and Osher collections, both NERFC member institutions, represent two of the most significant collections of cartographic material in New England, while many of the NERFC’s other 28 member institutions also hold cartographic and geographic objects in their collections. By developing a proposed NERFC itinerary at the Leventhal and Osher collections plus one additional member institution, scholars working at the intersection of geography and history will have an opportunity for a unique research opportunity.
The NERFC is administered by the Massachusetts Historical Society; see http://www.masshist.org/fellowships/nerfc/ for more information. The deadline for applications is February 1, 2020.
About Osher: The Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education (OML) at the University of Southern Maine is home to nearly half a million items related to cartography and map history. Our collections range from 1475 to the present day and include a combination of maps, atlases, globes, rare books, manuscript material, and ephemera. Our collections focus on objects and items related to the history of cartography, the Holy Land, the European settlement and expansion of New England, Maine, the American Revolution, Westward expansion, and wars of the 20th century. OML also has extensive collections of 19th century schoolgirl maps, geographic board games, ocean liner ephemera, travel guides and tourism literature, road maps, WWI posters (US), and materials related to the history of textile mills in New England. We have recently been strengthening our collection of maps detailing Native American land dispossession in the 19th and 20th centuries. More than 60,000 maps in our collection are fully digitized and available online at oshermaps.org. Our circulating reference collection numbers over 6000 volumes.
About Leventhal: With over 200,000 maps, 5,000 atlases, and various other materials relating to historical geography, the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library is one of the nation’s preeminent collections for cartographic and geographic research. Collections of distinction include Boston and New England; the American Revolution; maritime charts and atlases; and urban maps and bird’s eye views. The center particularly welcomes research projects that link cartographic representation together with urban and environmental history, landscape studies, the history of science and technology, and the study of communities and regions. An emerging collections strength comprises material relating to the computer revolution in cartography, geospatial data, and critical cartography. A digital collection of more than 10,000 ultra-high-resolution maps, some of which have been georeferenced, are available online.