“The classes I took at The Philadelphia Center were amazing! Mark encourages students to analyze and really see aspects of power and authority and how it plays out in the work environment. My Elective, Warren Huff’s Architecture of Cities, helped me to appreciate, notice and understand what I see every day in the historic city of Philadelphia. In other words, Mark helped me see the unseen and Warren helped me appreciate what I do see.”
Kay Miller, Hope College
Spring 2006
Metropolitan Career Center, Human Resources Intern
Fellowship Descriptions
The TPC Research Fellowships in the Liberal Arts involve opportunities at the American Philosophical Society Museum, the Independence National Historical Park and the Rosenbach Museum and Library. This page provides a brief description for each fellowship.
American Philosophical Society Museum Fellow
Philosophy may not be what you think! When Ben Franklin and his friends decided to establish the American Philosophical Society (APS) (http://www.apsmuseum.org or http://www.amphilsoc.org) in 1743, they studied nature and called themselves natural philosophers. Now we’d call them scientists. But the word “philosophical” stuck.
The APS, the oldest learning society in the United States, is home to one of Philadelphia’s newest museums, exploring history, science, and art in sophisticated interdisciplinary exhibitions that combine materials from the Society’s rich collections with provocative works by contemporary artists. Examples of past exhibitions include Stuffing Birds, Pressing Plants, Shaping Knowledge: Natural History in North America, 1730-1860; The Princess & the Patriot: Ekaterina Dashkova, Benjamin Franklin, and the Age of Enlightenment; and Dialogues with Darwin: Historical Documents and Contemporary Art. Past artists’ collaborations include works by Mark Dion, Sue Johnson, Winifred Lutz, Eve Andrée Laramée, and performance artist Brett Keyser. The current exhibition is Of Elephants and Roses: Encounters with French Natural History, 1790-1830, which is accompanied by The Greenhouse Projects: Five Takes on an Exhibition. The five contemporary “takes” include a futuristic greenhouse, experimental music, an original French farce about botany, a geocaching tour, and podcasts on the history of French food.
To learn about curating exhibitions from the inside out, the TPC Fellow will research and develop a small exhibition drawn from the APS collections (over 11 manuscripts, rare books, and early American material culture such as scientific instruments, patent models, portraits, and decorative arts). This small exhibition may become part of a larger, future APS Museum exhibition. They will also be able to choose from the following additional activities such as helping develop and implement public programming; assisting in
creating educational materials; becoming a museum guide; and coordinating and working with our volunteers on gallery night. The TPC Research Fellow will also be able to attend brown-bag lunch seminars given by APS research fellows and attend an APS members meeting with some of the most distinguished scientists and humanists in the United States.
Applicants must be currently enrolled in an undergraduate program in science or art education, museum studies, art history, history, or anthropology.
Independence National Historical Park Fellow
Independence National Historical Park, a unit of the US Department of Interior’s National Park Service, offers an annual public history fellowship to students participating in The Philadelphia Center program. Specifically, Independence’s Cultural Resources Management Division (which directly manages the historic buildings, landscapes, and artifacts that define Independence Park) will oversee one Philadelphia Center Fellow in a project that directly involves the student in researching and preserving historic resources.
The TPC Fellow will work with the park’s curators, architects, archeologists, and historians to study historical topics related to Independence Park’s mission of interpreting the founding of the American republic. This research will require the Fellow to perform independent research using primary source material related to social, political, economic, and/or cultural history topics relevant to such icons as Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. This research will be used to document the Park’s historic resources and to inform public programming for the Park’s 5.2 million visitors (both actual and virtual) through such mechanisms as museum exhibits, online exhibits, publications, and/or presentations.
The Fellow will also participate in the implementation of preservation policy by performing regular work with the Park’s resources (e.g., documenting museum collections) and by accompanying Park staff to meetings with consultants and/or Park partners involved in specific preservation projects (e.g. conservation of historic buildings). The goal of this fellowship is to provide a student with field experience in public history as it is performed in an historic site.
Rosenbach Museum and Library Fellow
Founded by famed book dealer Dr. A.S.W. Rosenbach and his brother and business partner Philip, the Rosenbach preserves and interprets a diverse collection of rare books, manuscripts, and fine and decorative arts. Among the highlights of the library collection are the first book printed in the United States, the sole surviving copy of first Poor Richard almanac, Bram Stoker’s working notes for Dracula, James Joyce’s manuscript of Ulysses, and the papers and possessions of Modernist poet Marianne Moore, as well as strong collections of Blake, Burns, Carroll, and Conrad, among others. Our mission is to inspire curiosity, inquiry, and creativity by engaging broad audiences in exhibitions, programs, and research based on our remarkable and expanding collections. For more information about the Rosenbach and its holdings, please visit us on-line at http://www.rosenbach.org.
The Philadelphia Center Fellow will have the opportunity to work closely with the curators and librarian. Possible projects include providing research assistance for a 2013 exhibition on the Civil War; researching and writing labels for our rotating highlights installation; working with the librarian to improve finding aids for specific library collections; conducting bibliographic research on the notebooks of Marianne Moore and following up on rights and permissions with Moore scholars; and developing a notebook of ‘scripts’ on literary topics for house tours, so museum docents can learn more about the authors and works in the collection. The Fellow will also have the opportunity to participate in the ongoing work of the museum, including object cataloging, planning for Fall programming such as the annual Banned Books Week and Dracula Festival, and attending departmental meetings.