Dillon Fellowship - Pequot
Library in Southport, CT is pleased to announce the first year of the
Dillon Fellowship program, which will provide support to researchers or
librarians working on the library’s collections for projects lasting one
month. The Dillon Fellowship will provide a stipend and living
expenses for fellows, not including housing, for one fellow per calendar
year.
A Dillon Fellow may come from two different professional paths:
For writers and researchers, the Fellowship offers an opportunity to
pursue a creative project while actively participating in the daily life
of Pequot Library. Applicants should be working on a book project,
fiction or nonfiction, or a feature-length documentary film. We are
particularly interested in proposals focused on the history of
libraries, but any projects that incorporate Pequot’s rare books and
archival materials will be considered. Among the library’s noted
strengths are its collections of Americana, local history, fine arts
press, and historic children’s books, as well as its pamphlets and
printed ephemeral materials from the late eighteenth through the
nineteenth centuries.
For
librarians, the Fellowship extends an invitation to envision a
sustainable preservation program. Applicants should have an M.L.S. from
an accredited institution and at least two (2) years’ experience in a
non-profit academic or public library.
Pequot Library was
founded in 1889 by Southport residents Virginia Marquand Monroe (1837 –
1926) and Elbert B. Monroe (1836 – 1894). The Library building,
designed by noted American architect Robert H. Robertson, opened to the
public in March 1894. Pequot Library is listed on the National Register
of Historic Places, and is only a short walk from the Southport train
station on the Metro North line. For over seven generations, Pequot
Library has been a cultural beacon of Fairfield County, providing
traditional library services and diverse programming to our local and
regional community. In recent years, the library has returned to a
focus on its Special Collections, two annual exhibitions based around
materials in the collection, a retrospective cataloging project, and now
the Dillon Fellowship Program. The Dillon Fellows will be an integral
part in this new chapter for Pequot Library.
Fellowships are
open to graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, professional
academics, independent scholars, librarians, and professionals working
in archives, libraries, or museums. Inquiries and completed
applications should be directed to specialcollections@pequotlibrary.org.
Applications should also indicate the proposed research output to
which an award of the Dillon Fellowship will contribute (i.e. articles,
conference papers, thesis chapters). All fellows will be asked to
produce a brief report of their research at the conclusion of the
fellowship, and will be invited to give a lecture or other agreed upon
public program at Pequot Library relating to the project undertaken as a
Dillon Fellow. The award has a maximum of $3,000. For more
information on Pequot Library’s Special Collections and the Dillon
Fellowship, please visit: www.pequotlibrary.org/fellowships
The application deadline for 2022 fellows is October 15, 2021, with the award announced in early December.
