Research Travel Grants ProgramThe Michigan Technological University Archives and Copper Country Historical Collections offers annual travel grants for researchers and scholars from outside the area to conduct research in the Archives. The Friends of the Van Pelt Library, a support organization for the Library and Archives of Michigan Technological University, provides financial support for the travel award program. The grant is intended to increase awareness of the Archives’ collections and encourage use of some lesser-known resources by scholars. The Archives’ manuscript collections contain an abundant array of records of the region’s rich history. The grant program, first offered during the 1997-98 academic year, provides support for travel, food, and lodging to carry out research using the collections of the MTU Archives. Since its inception, more than a dozen researchers have come to Michigan Tech to access the unique collections at the Archives. Past recipients of the travel grant have examined topics ranging from the role that fraternal orders have played in Lake Superior mining communities, the development of company housing at Hecla Location near Calumet, to the transformation of former mining districts into vacation and tourist destinations after World War II. The Archives has sponsored visiting scholars from throughout the United States and as far away as Sweden and England. The MTU Archives is a department of the J. Robert Van Pelt Library. Located on the Garden Level of the J. Robert Van Pelt Library, in the new John and Ruanne Opie Library, the Archives is a place where members of the campus community and the general public can learn more about local and regional history, and the people and events of the past. Grant applications are typically solicited in late autumn, with selection occurring after the winter holidays. For more information, contact the Archives at copper@mtu.edu or call 487-2505.
2008 Research Travel AwardsThe MTU Archives and Copper Country Historical Collections announces the winners of the 2008 Research Travel Award, making a total of twenty researchers that have been funded through the program since its start a decade ago. This annual program is sponsored by the financial support of the Friends of the Van Pelt Library, and provides support for travel, food, and lodging to carry out research using the collections of the MTU Archives.
This year’s recipients will make use of the Archives collections in some innovative ways. The award committee funded a joint ethnographic project on Polish immigrants in Calumet that will create written and online resources, a historical documentary on Michigan’s 1913 copper strike, and research into prehistoric Native American mining sites.
Thomas Beach, an independent filmmaker, plans a visit to the Archives this spring to incorporate primary sources into a historical documentary on the 1913 copper miners strike. Beach is working on a 90-minute video presentation of historic photos, contemporary newspaper headlines and articles, and many other sources from the rich array of material housed in the Archives that illustrate the social and cultural history of the Copper Country during this tumultuous period of labor unrest.
Michelle Hamilton, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Guelph, will explore archaeological issues related to the use of prehistoric Native American mines as sites for early mineral exploration by white settlers. Hamilton is particularly interested in the effects of exploration and collecting on the political status and rights of Native Americans. She plans a late spring visit to the Archives, and will give a public presentation on Native American material culture collecting in Canada.
The third award goes to a collaborative team of ethnographic and genealogical researchers, Cecile Jensen, director of Michigan Polonia, and Brother Joseph Martin, Assistant to the President of Lewis University. The team will look at the early Polish immigrant community in Calumet and their ties to the Posen District of Poland. Martin and Jensen plan a public presentation that will include their experiences researching Polish records. They plan a visit to the Copper Country in June.
This year’s awards continue a tradition of supported research using the collections housed at the Archives. Past grant recipients have studied the development of company housing at Hecla Location near Calumet, the role that fraternal orders have played in Lake Superior mining communities, and the adoption of the English language by European transplants to Michigan’s Copper Country. This year’s award committee consisted of four individuals: Larry Lankton from the MTU Social Sciences Department, Terry Reynolds of the Friends of the Van Pelt Library, and Erik Nordberg and Julie Blair, representing the MTU Archives. For further information about the awards program or about the collections of the MTU Archives, call 487-2505.
2007 | 2006 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000| 1999 | 1998
2007 - 2008 ApplicationThe Michigan Technological University Archives and Copper Country Historical Collections is offering research support awards for the 2008 calendar year. Grants are for up to $750 and provide support for travel, food and lodging to carry out research using the collections of the MTU Archives. Financial support for the travel award program is provided by the Friends of the Van Pelt Library, a support organization for the Library and Archives of Michigan Technological University. Topical research areas include: Michigan's western Upper Peninsula; industrial history, particularly copper mining and its ancillary industries; social history, including workforce issues, immigration and ethnicity; urban and community development along the Keweenaw Peninsula; transportation; and the environment.
Julia Blair
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