Applications for 2025 fellowships are closed.
Background
The Audrey and William H. Helfand Fellowship in the History of Medicine and Public Health supports research using the Library's resources for scholarly study of the history of medicine and public health with an emphasis on visual culture. It is intended specifically for a scholar in residence at the Library. Preference will be given to applications which focus on the use of visual materials held in the Library's collections and in other area institutions. Applications from researchers whose projects engage with the history of health equity are encouraged.
The Library holds a particularly rich collection of images related to the history of medicine and public health dating from the early modern era into the twentieth century. A diverse collection, including illustrated books, prints, broadsides, pamphlets, and printed medical ephemera, documents changes in clinical medicine and research, the evolution of medical practice, the history of public health and public responses to these developments. The collections form an extraordinary primary resource for scholars in history, popular culture, the sciences and social sciences, the history of printing and the graphic arts.
The Helfand Fellow is expected to spend at least four weeks in New York City, working in the New York Academy of Medicine Library. Fellows are required to make a public presentation about their project at NYAM, to contribute a post for our blog, and to submit a final report on work done at the Library by the end of the award period. All fellowship work must be completed during the calendar year for which the fellowship is awarded.
Eligibility Requirements
We invite applications from anyone, regardless of citizenship, academic discipline, or academic status. Preference will be given to (1) those whose research will take advantage of resources that are uniquely available at the Academy, (2) individuals in the early stages of their careers, and (3) applications which include an emphasis on the use of visual materials held within the Library’s collections and elsewhere. Applications from researchers whose projects engage with the history of health equity are encouraged. Applicants should provide specific information in their proposals about the collection items they plan to use, either by including a bibliography of resources they intend to consult or discussing those items in detail in the context of the application essay.
Application Process and Instructions
Please read the instructions below to assist you in completing the application form. If you have questions about the instructions, the application process, or the Library’s collections, please call 212-822-7313 or send email to history@nyam.org. Because visual materials are sometimes difficult to access through the Library's online catalog, applicants are encouraged to call or email for more information about the collections.
A complete application includes:
Please submit your application electronically.
Email your materials as attachments to history@nyam.org.
Attachments must be in Word, Adobe PDF, or Rich Text Format.
Please include the appropriate extension in filenames and give your application an easily understood name, i.e. "YourNameFellowshipApplication.pdf"
Letters of recommendation should be emailed as attachments to history@nyam.org by the recommender, not by the applicant.
Deadline
Current applications are for fellowships that may be used between January 1 and December 31, 2025. Applications are due by the end of the day on Friday, August 23, 2024. Letters of recommendation are due by the end of the day on Monday, August 26, 2024. Applicants will be notified of whether or not they have received a fellowship by Friday, October 11, 2024..
Award Information
Each Helfand fellow receives a stipend of $5,000 to support travel, lodging and incidental expenses for a flexible period between January 1 and December 31, 2025. The Helfand Fellow is expected to spend at least four weeks in New York City, working at the New York Academy of Medicine Library. Besides completing a research project, each fellow will be expected to make a public presentation at NYAM, contribute a post to our blog, and submit a final report. All fellowship work must be completed during the calendar year for which the fellowship is awarded.
The selection committee, comprising prominent historians and medical humanities scholars, will choose the fellow from the pool of applications. These fellowships are awarded directly to the individual applicant and not to the institution where he or she may normally be employed. None of the fellowship money is to be used for institutional overhead. There is a single application for the Klemperer and Helfand fellowships. Applicants do not need to specify for which award they are applying; the committee will make the decision about which fellowship would be most appropriate.
Publications
Any publications resulting from work supported by the Fellowships must acknowledge the assistance received from the New York Academy of Medicine Library. Copies of such publications should be submitted to the Library.
Contact information
Historical Collections
The New York Academy of Medicine
1216 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10029
Email: history@nyam.org
Telephone: 212-822-7313
Current & Previous Recipients
2024
Sheryl Anne Wombell, "The Circulation of Medical Knowledge in a Mid-seventeenth-century Network of Mobile Elites: Early Modern Recipe Itineraries"
2023
Sean Purcell, "Imaging Consumption: Seeing 'The WhitePlague' In American Medicine"
2022
Joseph Bishop, "Pharmaceutical Visions: A Visual Investigation into the Medical Mentalities and Expectations
that Shaped the Early Twentieth-Century US Pharmaceutical Industry"
2021
No Helfand Fellow
2020
Paul E. Sampson, "Ventilating the Empire: Environmental Machines in the British Atlantic World, 1700-1850"
2019
Matthew Davidson, "Health Under Occupation: Haitian Encounters with U.S. Imperial Medicine, 1915-1934"
2018
Julie Powell, “Body Politics: Gender and the Internationalization of Prosthetic Care, 1914-1925”
2017
Courtney Thompson, "The Criminal Race: Crime, Violence, and the Phrenological Imaginary In Nineteenth-century America"
2016
Daniel Goldberg, "Truth, Doubt and Objectivity: Early X-ray Experimentation and Use in New York City"
2014-2015
Laura Robson, "Using Vesalius: Adapting Images and Transforming Texts in Sixteenth Century Medical Manuals"
2013-2014
Samir Boumediene, "Appropriating the Medicinal Plants of Spanish America (1570-1750)"
2012-2013
Alessandro Laverda, "Anatomy and Myth: The Contest between Apollo and Marsyas in Anatomy Books of the Early Modern Age in Europe"
2011-2012
Cindy Stelmackowich, "Picturing Pathology: Morbid Anatomy Diagrams, Pathological Atlases and Disease, 1800-1840"
2010-2011
No Helfand Fellow
2009-2010
No Helfand Fellow
2008-2009
Kelina Gotman, "Zooanthropy"
2007-2008
Marni Kessler, "Anxiety and the Maternal Substitute: Edgar Degas' New Orleans Paintings"
2006-2007
Mary Hunter, "Shared Visions? Representations of Bodies in late Nineteenth Century American and French Art and Medicine"
2005-2006
Sabine Arnaud, “Hysteria: Fictions and Politics of Truths”
2004-2005
Bryan Waterman, “Writing Yellow Fever in Late-Eighteenth-Century New York City”
2003-2004
Angus Fletcher, “Paracelsian Medicine and the Experience of Bodily Consciousness in Seventeenth-Century English Literature”
2002-2003
Vanessa Ryan, "The Material Mind: Victorian Physiological Psychology and the Narration of Consciousness"
2001-2002
Michael R. Blackie, "The Sensorium in Splints: Some Permutations of S. Weir Mitchell's Use of Rest"
2000-2001
Richard A. Barney, "Eyeing the Divine: The Physiology of the Sublime in Early Modern Britain"
1999-2000
Carolyn Thomas de la Pena, "Powering the Body"
View our COVID-19 Safety Protocols for attending NYAM public events.