Baird Society Resident Scholar Program

The Baird Society Resident Scholar Program was established to support the study of some of SI Libraries’ most unique and valuable holdings: its Special Collections. Stipends of $3,500 per month for up to six months are available for individuals working on a topic relating to these collections. Historians, librarians, doctoral students, and post-doctoral scholars are welcome to apply. Scholars must be in residence at the Smithsonian during the award period. While the Libraries’ extensive general collections may be used to support scholars’ research, the focus of their projects must center around Special Collections. These collections are located in in Washington, DC and New York City, and include:

• 19th- and early 20th-century World's Fair printed materials
• Manufacturers' commercial trade catalogs in the National Museum of American History Library (285,000 pieces representing 30,000 companies from the 1840's to the present) used to study American industrialization, mass production, and consumerism
• Natural history rare books in the Cullman Library (pre-1840 works on topics such as botany, zoology, travel & exploration, museums & collecting, geology, and anthropology)
• Air and space history in the National Air and Space Museum Library's Ramsey Room for the study of ballooning, rocketry, and aviation from the late 18th to early 20th centuries
• James Smithson's library in the Cullman Library
• European and American decorative arts, architecture, and design in the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum Library's Bradley Room, which span from the 18th to the 20th century
• History of art and artists, exhibition catalogs, catalogues raisonné, serials and dissertations concentrated in the area of American art, history, biography and nearly 100,000 vertical files filled with artists' ephemera.

How to Apply