Mount Vernon continues to foster academic research in George Washington and the founding era. Now in its 7th year, the Research Fellowships program offers long and short-term fellowships for scholars. This program provides funding and living space at the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington.
Fellows gain access to the Library's entire archives and interact with Mount Vernon staff to advance their academic pursuits. This year, in particular, a record number of books were published by those who have held fellowships through this program. Those authors included: Mark Edward Lender, Matthew Costello, Lindsay Chervinsky, Trenton Cole Jones, and Colin Calloway. Calloway won the 2019 George Washington Prize for his work: The Indian World of George Washington.
2018–2019 Research Fellows
Rachel Banke, Ph.D.
Bute's Empire: Reform, Reaction, and the Roots of Imperial Crisis
Recipient of the Society of Colonial Wars Fellowship
Mark Boonshoft, Ph.D.
Education and the Fight over Who Should Rule at Home in the Early Republic
Recipient of the Amanda and Greg Gregory Fellowship
Kristen Brill, Ph.D.
The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association and the Politics of Neutrality in the Civil War Era (1861–1874)
Justin Cherry
The Impact of George Washington's Mount Vernon in 18th-Century Foodways
Sara Collini
Birthing A Nation: Enslaved Women and Midwifery in Early America, 1750–1820
Iris de Rode
The “soldier-philosopher”, marquis François-Jean de Chastellux (1734–1788) and American Independence
Recipient of the Chastellux Research Fellowship funded by the Richard Lounsbery Foundation
George Goodwin, FRHistS, FRSA
George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and the Propaganda and Intelligence War in the British Isles and Europe During the American Revolution
Recipient of the Dr. William M. and Betty H. Busey Family Fellowship
Sean P. Harvey, Ph.D.
Albert Gallatin, the Early Republic, and the Atlantic World
Recipient of the James C. Rees Entrepreneurship Fellowship funded by the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation
James F. Hrdlicka, Ph.D.
Federal Empire: Constitution-Making in Revolutionary America
Elizabeth Jamieson
A Carriage for the President? The Powel Coach and its Place in the Story of George Washington's Mount Vernon
Joyce Zankel Lindorff, D.M.A.
A Harpsichord as Cultural Narrator: Eleanor Parke Custis and Music-Making at Mount Vernon
Daniel Livesay, Ph.D.
Endless Bondage: Slavery in Old Age and the Origins of Paternalism
William D. Rieley, P.L.A.
The Guiding Geometry of George Washington's Mount Vernon Landscape
Brian Douglas Steele, Ph.D.
"A Man to Whom the Whole World is Offering Incense": The Founders Remember George Washington
Recipient of the James C. Rees Fellowship on the Leadership of George Washington
David O. Stewart
America's Master Politician
Mark A. Tabbert
"A Deserving Brother": George Washington & Freemasonry
Karin Wulf, Ph.D.
Founders on Founding: Genealogy and Political Legacies in Washington's America
Hubert Zapf, Ph.D.
George Washington, Frederick the Great, and the Emergence of National Literary Cultures: A Transatlantic Comparison
2019–2020 Research Fellows
Sheila Arnold
New York Presidency: Slaves, Servants and the Washington Family
George W. Boudreau, Ph.D.
"Telling the Story:" Material Culture, Surviving Spaces, and the Presentation of Early America's History
Lydia Mattice Brandt, Ph.D.
John Gadsby Chapman's America
Recipient of the Dr. William M. and Betty H. Busey Family Fellowship
Valérie Capdeville, Ph.D.
George Washington, Clubbable Gentleman: The Role of Colonial Clubs in the Building of Social and Political Identities and Networks
Dusty Dye
"A Decent External Sorrow": Death, Mourning, and the American Revolution
Recipient of the Amanda and Greg Gregory Fellowship
Ronald Fuchs II
George Washington, his Coat of Arms, and the Cincinnati Service
Alexi Garrett
Martha Washington and the Business of Slavery at Mount Vernon
Recipient of the James C. Rees Entrepreneurship Fellowship funded by the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation
Ann Bay Goddin
Coming to the Rescue: Ann Pamela Cunningham and the Beginning of America's Historic Preservation Movement
Cassandra Good, Ph.D.
Children of Washington: The Custis Grandchildren and the Politics of Family in America, 1776–1865
Odai Johnson, Ph.D.
Staging the Revolution: Washington and the Theatre of War
Recipient of the Society of Colonial Wars Fellowship
Martha J. King, Ph.D.
A Revolutionary Army at Play: Catharine Littlefield Greene and Her Coterie in the Carolina Lowcountry
Gerard N. Magliocca
Washington's Heir: The Life of Justice Bushrod Washington
Marcus P. Nevius, Ph.D.
"city of refuge": Dismal Plantation in the Revolutionary War Era
Patrick O'Donnell
The Indispensables: A Band of Brothers and their Crucial Role Fighting the Revolution
Derek Kane O'Leary
Writing Washington for an Atlantic Audience before the Civil War
Franklin Sammons
Yazoo's Settlement: Law, Finance, and Dispossession in the Southeastern Borderlands
Laura Sandy, Ph.D.
A Tale of Two Masters: Managing Free and Enslaved Labour at Mount Vernon and Monticello
Nora Slonimsky, Ph.D.
The Engine of Free Expression: Copyrighting The State in Early America
Jillian B. Vaum
Washington's Body Servant: Freedom and Memory in Antebellum America
John C. Winters
The Peace Medal's Glare: Red Jacket, the Washington Administration, and the Origins of Iroquois Exceptionalism
If you would like to sponsor a fellowship at the Washington Library, contact the Development Department at 703.799.8647.