Published on Aug 28, 2020
The American Philosophical Society Library & Museum is excited to announce that Hilary Leathem, a PhD candidate in Sociocultural Anthropology at the University of Chicago, has received a Digital Knowledge Sharing Fellowship. This fellowship is open to scholars at all stages of their careers, especially Native American scholars in training, tribal college and university faculty members. It is also open to scholars working closely with Native communities on projects in Native American and Indigenous Studies and related fields.
This fellowship will allow Hilary, along with fellowship recipient Pedro Guillermo Ramon Celis, to further their project, “Este Lugar Tiene Muchas Historias.”
We look forward to working with both Hilary and Pedro and learning more about their research efforts. As the Society's Librarian Patrick Spero said, “We are thrilled to welcome a new class of fellows to the Library & Museum. Our fellows conduct cutting edge research in a wide range of fields, and every year they make new discoveries in our collections that change what we know about our past.”
The American Philosophical Society (APS), the oldest learned society in the United States, was founded in 1743 by Benjamin Franklin for the purposes of “promoting useful knowledge.” In the 21st century, it serves to advance knowledge and promote scholarship in the humanities and social, mathematical, life, and physical sciences. Members of the Society are elected from among the most eminent scholars and civic and cultural leaders in North America and abroad. More than 100 living APS Members are Nobel laureates.
The APS Library & Museum collections make it among the premier institutions for documenting and exhibiting the history of the American Revolution and founding, the history of science from Newton to NASA, Native American languages and culture, and the development of American anthropology. The Library houses over 14 million manuscripts, 275,000 volumes and bound periodicals, 250,000 images, fine art, and other objects. Museum exhibitions interpret these extensive collections for the regional, national, and international visitors who come to Philadelphia’s historic district. In doing so, the exhibitions aim to nurture the spirit of inquiry, promote critical thinking, and engender enthusiasm for object-based learning by using primary source documents and authentic objects. The Library & Museum also hosts a robust fellowship program, offering over 25 short-term and 10 long-term fellowships each year to scholars using its collections.