“Kim Bancroft’s ‘roots’ journey took her back four generations, back to an ancestor whose career was intimately tied to the early history of California. Bancroft’s great-great-grandfather was Hubert Howe Bancroft, founder of the library at UC Berkeley bearing his name.

Hubert Bancroft had a mania for collecting anything that pertained to the culture and history of the Pacific Coast, from Mexico to Alaska. His collection included gold miners’ diaries, samples of Eskimo hair, oral histories by California’s early Mexican settlers. Before he turned it over to the University of California, the collection had grown to some 60,000 items. Earlier this year Heyday Books in Berkeley published Kim Bancroft’s abridged version of her ancestor’s autobiography, Literary Industries. She’s been traveling throughout the state promoting the book, sometimes dressed as her great-great-grandmother Matilda, who assisted her husband in his collection of historical memorabilia.” – Tom Holt, SFGate

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The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley and U.S. History Scene are pleased to announce competitions for a new fellowship: The Bancroft Library-U.S. History Scene Fellowship in Digital History.

The aim of this fellowship program is to familiarize scholars with emerging digital technologies and digital archival collections, including the digital publication of original scholarly research. The fellowship will introduce history graduate students to specialized skills, methods, and professional networks for conducting digital research using online digital primary source collections at the Bancroft Library, aimed at innovating K-12 history education and curriculum development.

Eligibility for Awards:

The fellowship is designed to support qualified doctoral students in the humanities or social sciences from any recognized institution of higher education in the United States.

Size of Awards:

The fellowship will include a stipend of $1500 to support 6-8 weeks of research and writing to be paid by the Bancroft Library at U.C. Berkeley directly to the fellow. Residency at the Bancroft Library is not required.

Applying for Awards:

Applicants should submit a C.V. and a research statement indicating the scope and purpose of their proposed research, identifying relevant holdings of The Bancroft Library that will support their research. The digital application form, along with documentary evidence of current enrollment at a college or university, and two letters of recommendation must be sent by June 10, 2014 to editors@ushistoryscene.com. Awards will be announced June 24, 2014.

For all questions please e-mail:
Rhae Lynn Barnes, US History Scene at: rlbarnes@ushistoryscene.com
Mary W. Elings, Bancroft Library at: melings@library.berkeley.edu

Scope of Eligible Projects:

Fellows will advance digital research practices with primary sources housed at Bancroft Library, identify new sources that should undergo digitization for public access, and receive peer-reviewed digital publishing training through U.S. History Scene for public education. The fellowships will result in digital publication of articles and curriculum plans related to their research topics to be presented on the Bancroft Library and U.S. History Scene websites. This is a virtual fellowship, allowing scholars a flexible schedule through telecommuting to participate (although residency at the Bancroft Library is welcomed). To accommodate this flexibility, primary sources will be digitized and sent to researchers directly from the Bancroft Library for their research use.

Topics that fellows might explore include:

• Native American life and culture
• Pacific exploration, maritime history, and empire
• Mapping and settling the West
• Missions and cross-cultural exchange
• The Gold Rush
• Overland trails
• Mormons in the U.S. West
• Mexican-American War, Civil War, & Reconstruction in California
• Native and African American Slavery in the Early American West
• Formation of National Parks
• The U.S. home front during World War I & II
• Organized Labor & Unionization
• Environmental History / Natural Disasters
• Railroads and Transportation History
• Water, Oil, and Mining
• Land Grant Acts
• The Great Depression & Dust Storms
• The Great Migration
• Major social movements of the 20^th century: Civil Rights, Black Power, Chicano Movements, Feminism & the Women?s Movement, Disability Rights, GLBT Rights
• The West in the Cold War
• Chinese Exclusion
• Japanese Internment
• Role of military & the federal government
• Mass Culture in the U.S. West
• Frontier & Western Mythology

“A relationship that began in 2002 with David Logan’s out-of-the-blue phone call to a Berkeley librarian has resulted in an unparalleled gift of photography books, including rare works by Walker Evans, Robert Frank, and others. The collection includes full runs of major photography periodicals, such as a pristine set of Alfred Stieglitz’s Camera Work, America’s most important serial of its time.

Art history librarian Kathryn Wayne, who was David Logan’s first contact at the Library, remembers ‘how much he enjoyed talking to front-line librarians, and how deeply he loved books.’ The gift from the Reva and David Logan Family Foundation includes his documentary photography collection of over 2500 books and journals, along with funding for new acquisitions, a curatorial assistant to support the collection, and the remodeling of a Bancroft Library seminar room that will house the collection.” – Fiat Lux (UCB Library Newsletter)

Full Article available on page 7 of Fiat Lux.

Congratulations to the #HackFSM first place winners: Cassie Xiong, Kevin Casey, Craig Hiller, and Alice J.Q. Liu! Check out their winning entry: http://2n.io/

Read full article here.