About the Fellowship: To promote the interpretation of Virginia history and access to its collections, we offer two one-month-long VMHC Research Fellowships per year. Learn about the financial support we offer below with our VMHC Research Fellowships. These research fellowships provide funding to support one-month-long research visits to the Virginia Museum of History & Culture. For the purpose of this program, a month is defined as four weeks in the research library, which is open 10 am to 5 pm, Monday through Saturday. VMHC Research Fellowships cover the broad sweep of Virginia and American history but will typically be awarded to applicants working in an area of strength of the collection. These include:
- Colonial history
- Antebellum history and the history of slavery
- Civil War and Reconstruction-era history
- Black history
- Business history and economic history
We confer fellowships on the basis of the applicants’ scholarly qualifications, the merits of their proposals, and the appropriateness of their topics, as demonstrated by citation to specific sources in our collections. Typically, month-long fellowships will be awarded to researchers working in an area of strength in the collection, such as colonial history, the Civil War era, and African American history. Applicants whose research promises to result in significant publication, including the Virginia Magazine of History & Biography, will receive primary consideration.
Because the program is designed to help defray travel expenses, residents of the Richmond metropolitan area are not eligible for fellowships. We expect recipients to work on a regular basis in our reading room during the period of their fellowships. We welcome applications from doctoral candidates.