Applications are now open for the 2022 Fellowships at the State Library of NSW. These awards are for applicants with experience as historical and archival researchers. Applicants must demonstrate their record of scholarly research and publication. Previous winners of Library awards have included early career academics, independent researchers and writers and professional historians.
The Library currently offers the following fellowships:
- Coral Thomas Fellowship: $100,000
- Ross Steele AM Fellowship: $12,000
- Dr A. M. Hertzberg AO Fellowship: $20,000
- David Scott Mitchell Memorial Fellowship: $12,000
- Merewether Scholarship: $12,000
- CH Currey Fellowship: $20,000
- Nancy Keesing AM Fellowship: $20,000
- Australian Religious History Fellowship: $20,000
- Jean Arnot Memorial Fellowship: $1000
Of particular relevance to art historians is the Ross Steele AM Fellowship, which supports research into the State Library of NSW pictorial collections. It was inaugurated in 2019 with the support of Ross Steele AM. The Library has been collecting pictorial material since the 1880s, but the David Scott Mitchell Bequest of 1907 and the generosity of Sir William Dixson underpinned the compilation of the some of the largest pictorial collections in the country. The Library’s pictorial collections are principally documentary, and their acquisition has operated in a market and context very different to fine art images. The broad history of the compilation of these collections is not well understood. Initially pictures were purchased to illustrate major historical landscapes, events and people, often with a focus on European colonisation.
For more information on all the fellowships and to apply, see https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/about-library/fellowships. Applications for the current round of fellowships closes on 16 July 2021.
