Adirondack Experience, The Museum on Blue Mountain Lake (ADKX), inaugurates its research fellowship program, which will enable emerging and established scholars to make use of the unparalleled collections found in the ADKX library.
Funded by Julie and Warder Cadbury and Peter C. Welsh endowments, these fellowships aim to support scholarly exploration of Adirondack history.
Selected from a highly qualified pool of applicants, the researchers chosen as this year’s recipients represent a diverse range of academic backgrounds and interests:
· Madeline DeDe-Panken, a graduate student from the City University of New York, will delve into the fascinating world of mushroom gathering in the Adirondacks during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
· John Kuhn, Assistant Professor at Binghamton University, will explore the rich history of indigenous birchbark canoes, utilizing ADKX’s extensive boat collection.
· Jason Newton, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, will examine the evolution of professional forestry in the region, shedding light on the intersection of masculinity and trade secrets.
“The fellowship selection committee was impressed by the quality and variety of applications we received in the first year of the fellowship program,” said Jenny Ambrose, Director of Archives & Special Collections at ADKX. “We are excited to host these visiting scholars in Blue Mountain Lake and have them begin this next chapter of Adirondack exploration.”
Applications were evaluated based on several criteria; the significance of the project to scholarship about the Adirondack region, the qualifications of the applicant to undertake the work, and the capacity of the ADKX collections to support the project.
The ADKX staff and trustees look forward to welcoming the fellows to the Adirondack Experience campus and the community in the coming academic year. Ambrose and other ADKX collections experts will work one-on-one with the scholars to assist with the research and discovery. Visiting scholars will also have the opportunity to consult other historical collections in our region as part of their research project.
“The Adirondack Experience has a long-standing commitment to encouraging inquiry into the region’s history through research and publication,” said Executive Director David Kahn. “We are very excited to be able to support the next generation of Adirondack researchers as they pursue answers to new questions being posed within the scholarly community.”
ADKX encourages applications from the community for research fellowships for the 2025-2026 academic year and future years. The application period for the next round of fellowships opens in October 2024. For information and updates, please visit theadkx.org/adkx-fellowships.