Balch Fellowship Grant

Balch Fellowship Grant

Status: ACTIVE
Funder: Historical Society of Pennsylvania
Amount: US $3,000
Last Updated: December 02, 2025

Summary

The Balch Fellowship, offered by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, supports research in various fields related to American history, particularly focusing on ethnic and immigrant studies. Each year, two to three fellows receive a $3,000 stipend for one month of residency in Philadelphia. This fellowship allows scholars to explore topics such as immigrant experiences and American cultural history, utilizing the extensive collections of the Historical Society and the Library Company of Philadelphia.

Overview

NOTE: Candidates are strongly encouraged to inquire about the appropriateness of the proposed topic. Historical Society of Pennsylvania The Historical Society of Pennsylvania awards a number of four-week fellowships for research in its collections during each academic year. Fellowship Details Historically, the Library Company of Philadelphia and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania have offered many opportunities for support in the form of one-month fellowships for advanced research in residence in either or both institutions. For this year, the two programs will be administered separately. As part of its continued commitment to supporting researchers, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania will award a number of fellowships for research in its collections during the academic year. The Collection ​ The Historical Society of Pennsylvania has collections capable of supporting research in a variety of fields and disciplines relating to the history of America and the Atlantic world, as well as mid-Atlantic regional history, from the 17th through the 20th centuries. HSP collections are strong in local newspapers and printed ephemera, prints and photographs of the Philadelphia region, and graphics by local artists. They possess extraordinary strength in the history of women and African Americans, popular literature, business and banking, popular medicine, philanthropy and reform, education, natural sciences, technology, art, architecture, German Americana, American Judaica, and a host of other subjects. Now enriched by the holdings of the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies, HSP holds more than 19 million personal, organizational, and business manuscripts, as well 560,000 printed items and 312,000 graphic images concerning national and regional political, social, and family history. The Balch Institute collections bring the HSP added strength in documenting ethnic and immigrant history, with significant holdings of ethnic newspapers, records of benevolent societies and other local and national ethnic organizations, and personal papers of prominent leaders in ethnic and immigrant communities across the nation. Explore HSP’s library catalog. Fellows are also encouraged to use the collections of the Library Company of Philadelphia, located next-door to HSP in Philadelphia’s Center City. The two independent research libraries have complementary collections capable of supporting research in a variety of fields and disciplines relating to the history of the United States in its Atlantic world context from the 17th through the 19th centuries, as well as Mid-Atlantic regional history to the present. Balch Fellowship Prior to its merger with the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, The Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies maintained an active fellowship program. This legacy of support for scholarship in ethnic and immigrant studies has been continued at HSP with the Balch Institute Fellowships. Each year, two or three fellows are awarded a stipend to support one month of residency in Philadelphia to enable them to research on topics related to the ethnic and immigrant experience in the United States and/or American cultural, social, political, or economic history post-1875. Past Balch fellows have done research on immigrant children, Italian American fascism, German Americans in the Civil War, Pan-Americanism, African American women's political activism, and much more. Funding The stipend is $3,000.

Eligibility

You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website.