Fellowships Available

Key dates
Application portal opens	November 1, 2026
Optional draft review deadline	December 1, 2026
Applications due	January 15, 2027
Decisions announced	By April 1, 2027
Fellowship dates for completion	September 1, 2027–August 31, 2028

---

Winterthur supports object-based research through a variety of short- and long-term fellowships that include opportunities for visiting researchers who are self-funded.

Fellowships Offered

Fellowship	Who can apply	Length	Stipend
NEH Postdoctoral	Ph.D. or terminal degree holders who are U.S. citizens. (Ph.D. must be conferred by Jan. 15, 2027). Fellowship must be completed by Feb. 28, 2028.	4 months	$5,000 / month
Winterthur Postdoctoral	Ph.D. or terminal degree holders regardless of nationality (Ph.D. must be completed before the fellowship begins; may still be a candidate when applying)	4 months	$4,500 / month
Dissertation	Doctoral students currently registered at a university	4–8 months	$2,500 / month
Short-Term	Independent or institutional researchers at all levels, including graduate students	4–6 weeks	$3,000/ month
Faith Andrews	No separate application required. Open to researchers studying Shaker life and material culture	4–6 weeks	$3,000/ month
William Seale	No separate application required. Open to researchers studying architecture, landscape and gardens, or White House/presidential history	4–6 weeks	$3,000/ month
Ephemera Society of America (ESA)–Winterthur	No separate application required. Open to current students with projects utilizing Winterthur’s ephemera collection	Up to 4 weeks	$3,000/ month
American Trust for the British Library (ATBL)	Open to Winterthur fellowship recipients and grants up to 1-month reciprocal research in the British Library collections (ATBL award: $2,500)	Up to 4 weeks	$3,000/ month
Conservation Research	Open to independent or institutional conservators and conservation scientists	4–6 weeks	$3,000/ month
Conservation Residency	Open to conservation professionals with an established project in a Winterthur-designated priority area.	Up to 4 weeks	$3,000/ month plus travel and lodging
Maker-Creator	Open to artists and creative professionals	4–6 weeks	$3,000/ month
Affiliated Researcher (not a fellowship)	Self-funded researchers or artists at any stage of career	Flexible	None

---

What Can You Do at Winterthur?

Fellows can utilize the hundreds of thousands of American and European imprints, manuscripts, trade literature, ephemera, photographs, and archives of the Winterthur Library, an independent, world-class research collection. They can also examine Winterthur Museum’s expansive object collections of more than 90,000 artifacts that help us broadly understand four centuries of everyday life in America in a global context. They can look at these collections with specialists and experts and consult with conservators and scientific staff. They can explore 7,500 plant specimens and more than 1,000 acres of landscape and gardens, using these spaces and materials for research, or for respite and recharging. Fellowship privileges and policies can be found here.

Winterthur Research Fellowship staff are available to talk with you about potential projects and your application. Please contact Academic Programs staff with any questions.

Fellowship Terms

Required:

• Present one Research Fellowship Program lunchtime talk/lecture about your research at Winterthur (length: 20–25 minutes). We prefer that you present during your residency; if that is not possible, we will work to schedule this afterward.
• Attend weekly Research Fellowship Program lunchtime talks and take part in discussion, contributing to the collegial atmosphere of our scholarly community.
• Share one post about your research on your own social media and tag #researchatwinterthur and @winterthurmuse. Please make this shareable so we can repost it.

Optional:

• If you would like to present a public program or engage Winterthur’s visitors, please share your idea with Academic Programs staff before your fellowship begins. Our public programs are scheduled nine to twelve months in advance.

Conditions:

• Fellows cannot accept teaching assignments or undertake any other major work or research activities during their fellowship tenure.
• Fellows are expected to be on site at least four days a week. Short-term, Postdoctoral, Dissertation, and Maker-Creator fellows may complete part of the fellowship remotely, for the equivalent time. We cannot support fully remote fellowships, but we will work with you on a flexible schedule as needed.
• Fellows may use sabbaticals and grants from your own institutions during your fellowship tenure so long as they do not prevent you from meeting Winterthur’s fellowship requirements.

Long-Term Fellowships

National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Postdoctoral Fellowship
Stipend: $5,000 per month.
Fellowship must be completed by February 28, 2028.

This fellowship supports residence at Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library for a duration of four months as a junior or senior scholar whose project holds the potential for wider impact upon the humanities rooted in research using Winterthur’s collections.

NEH fellowships are for scholars who have already completed their formal professional training. Degree candidates and individuals seeking support for work in pursuit of a degree are not eligible. Candidates for advanced degrees must have completed all requirements, except for the actual conferral of the degree, by January 15, 2027. This includes the dissertation defense. Foreign nationals who have been residents in the United States for at least three years immediately preceding the application deadline for the fellowship are eligible. 

NEH Fellows are significant contributors to Winterthur’s intellectual community and are expected to be in regular and continuous residence at Winterthur for the entirety of their fellowship. They must devote full time to their study and may not accept teaching assignments or undertake any other major activities during the tenure of their award. Fellows may hold other major fellowships or grants during fellowship tenure, in addition to sabbaticals and supplemental grants from their own institutions. Recipients may not hold any other NEH-funded grants concurrent to the NEH Postdoctoral Fellowship; holding an additional NEH-funded grant before or after the fellowship is permitted.

Winterthur Postdoctoral Fellowship
Stipend: $4,500 per month.

This fellowship is a four-month fellowship for advanced research or for revising research for publication and is open to all applicants regardless of nationality. You may apply if you will have completed your Ph.D. before September 1, 2027. You may still be a Ph.D. candidate when you apply (applications are due January 15, 2027). If you are unsure whether your degree timing qualifies, please contact us.

“As a China scholar, I have never thought I would conduct research at Winterthur, which I assumed to be primarily for American history and material culture. From my experience, however, I have learned about their surprising global connections.”

Yuan Yi, Postdoctoral Fellow, 2025–2026

Dissertation Fellowships

Stipend: $2,500 per month.

These fellowships support doctoral candidates who are researching or writing their dissertations; they last four to eight months. If you are completing your Ph.D. independently, without enrollment at a university, you are not eligible for a dissertation fellowship, but you may apply for a short-term fellowship. If you are unsure which fellowship is appropriate, please contact us.

Short-Term Fellowships

Stipend: $3,000 per month.

Open to independent or institutional researchers and scholars of all levels, including graduate students completing Ph.D. and M.A. degrees. Applicants may apply for fellowship periods ranging from four to six weeks. Hybrid completion of this fellowship is possible.

You do not need to apply for a particular named fellowship (e.g., Faith Andrews, William Seale, ESA). We consider every short-term application for the following awards:  

• Faith Andrews Fellowships for the study of Shaker life and material culture
• William Seale Fellowship for research related to architectural, landscape and gardens, and White House/Presidential history.
• Ephemera Society of America—Winterthur Fellowship
• The American Trust for the British Library (ATBL) Research Fellowship

Ephemera Society of America—Winterthur Fellowship
This fellowship is jointly sponsored by the Ephemera Society of America (ESA) and Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library. Open to graduate and undergraduate students, the fellowship supports a visiting researcher at Winterthur for up to four weeks. We welcome projects that reflect a scholarly interest in ephemera and make use of Winterthur’s extensive ephemera holdings, including trade cards, greeting cards and postcards, cigar box labels, die-cuts, scrap, and thousands of other library and museum collections.

To be considered, mention the fellowship in your application essay. This does not affect your consideration for other Winterthur fellowships.

Additional expectation: In addition to the Winterthur Fellowship requirements, the recipient will propose a talk for the next ESA conference following their fellowship and/or submit an article for publication in the Ephemera Society of America Journal.

Conservation Research Fellowship

Open to independent or institutional conservators or conservation scientists interested in pursuing projects that advance their research interest and professional development goals. Any topic is welcome, provided our facilities and resources can support the chosen project.

Before you apply, we encourage you to contact Conservation Department staff to discuss whether your project suits their expertise and lab resources. In your application, please name your area of interest and the staff member(s) you contacted.

Conservation Residency

Funding for the stipend of $3,000 per month plus all travel and lodging is generously supported by alumni of the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation.

Open to conservation professionals with an established project in alignment with a departmental priority detailed below, the program supports visiting experts for up to four weeks, hosted at Winterthur by a member of the Conservation Department. These residencies are designed to foster meaningful exchange, bring fresh perspectives and specialized expertise that can accelerate research, advance strategic projects, and enrich student learning—while also offering Winterthur staff the rare opportunity to pause, reflect, and reinvest their energy in the work they do best.

For the 2027–2028 term, we welcome projects that support expertise in the following areas:

• upholstery conservation
• stain reduction of ceramics
• quantitative analysis of historical glass
• mechanics and structural treatments of paintings
• 20th-century synthetic textiles
• dye analysis
• instrumental analysis of leather tanning processes
• microscopy of plant materials
• conservation of photo albums and scrapbooks

Visiting experts will have access to Winterthur’s full conservation facilities, analytical equipment at both the museum and the University of Delaware, and Winterthur’s museum, garden and library collections. In addition to the Winterthur Fellowship requirements, the Conservation Residency recipient will be expected to engage in sharing with faculty, staff, and students in their identified area of expertise. 

To apply, contact us by December and identify a Conservation Department host to sponsor your application. Identify your host in your formal application. 

The American Trust for the British Library (ATBL) Research Fellowship

Winterthur is a partner institution with the ATBL .

This fellowship offers a $2,500 stipend that supports research using collections in any department in the British Library.

We are excited to announce René Lommez Gomes, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Museum Studies, Art History and Cultural Heritage, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais in Brazil, as the recipient of this year’s Jenny and Pierre du Pont ATBL-Winterthur Short-Term Research Fellowship.

How it works: ATBL partners with American collections-based institutions that currently offer established, competitive short-term research fellowships or stipends. Winterthur short-term applicants can elect to be considered for an ATBL fellowship if they receive a Winterthur fellowship (please select this option in the application portal; the Winterthur award is $3,000). ATBL will notify recipients directly on or before May 1, 2027, for next steps in their application process.

Questions? Email fellowships@atbl.us and check the organization’s website for information about this year’s competitive cycle.

“My lunchtime talk gave me the opportunity to pose very specific questions to a very knowledgeable audience… hearing from a group of experts has made me feel more confident about my own understanding and interpretations.”

Cambra Sklarz, Ph.D. Candidate, University of California, Riverside, 2023-2024 Short-Term Research Fellow

Maker-Creator Fellowship

Stipend: $3,00 per month.

HOW WILL WINTERTHUR INSPIRE YOU?

Our four-to-six-week research fellowships are designed for artistic and creative professionals to examine, study, and immerse themselves in Winterthur’s vast collections to inspire their practices. Past fellows have utilized the museum’s landscape, gardens, museum collections, and library for inspiration, precedent, instruction, and material for their creations. See our Current and Past Research Fellows page for a list of all Maker-Creator Fellowship recipients. The Winterthur Fellows’ Projects page has more information on the range of creative projects shaped by experiences at Winterthur.

This fellowship is designed to enhance artists’ practices through time with the institution’s collections. Winterthur has no dedicated studio space and there is no expectation that new work will be produced on site during the fellowship. Occasionally, modest on-site creation may be possible depending on the practice, and program staff are available to talk through your goals prior to applying.

Maker-Creator applicants are encouraged to contact Academic Programs staff with any questions about project feasibility or the application process and will review drafts of application narratives received before December 1.

Directions to apply can be found here. Maker-Creator Fellowship applicants will also need to submit work samples (images, video, or writing). See “Apply for Research Fellowships” for details.

“The duet of primary source research and object-driven house tours grounded my time and provided me with a solid, sturdy footing for the next step of translating research into artworks. Without Winterthur’s Maker-Creator Fellowship and all that it encompassed, I know my project might not be a reality.”

Brece Honeycutt, artist and 2023-2024 Maker-Creator Fellow

Affiliated Researchers

We reserve a limited number of spaces for Affiliated Researchers who can provide their own financial support to be in residence. We welcome affiliated researchers at any stage of their career or artistic practice. Affiliated Researchers receive the same benefits as funded fellows, with access adjusted to the scope and needs of the project.

There is no application form. An email of interest should be sent to Academic Programs staff with the following information:

• details of your current project or research subject
• dates of intended time in residence at Winterthur
• a copy of your current résumé or curriculum vitae
• and a letter of reference that addresses your project, record of accomplishment, and ability to work with a collegial group. If you are working closely with Winterthur staff as part of your project, the letter of reference should come from that staff member.

Requests are reviewed by staff on a rolling basis. Please allow at least two months for processing a status request before the intended start date of your research here.