June 4, 2018

Each year, the Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine (CHSTM) – of which Drexel University is a member – holds two rounds of competitive research fellowships for scholars who would like to use collections from member institutions.

This year, two CHSTM research fellows opted to use Drexel University’s archives in their research.

Elaine Ayers, a PhD Candidate in the Department of History at Princeton University, will use the Drexel collections for her dissertation titled Strange Beauty: Botanical Collection, Preservation, and Display in the 19th Century Tropics.

Paul Mitchell, a graduate student of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, will use the Drexel collections for his thesis, Human Remainders: The Lost Century of the Samuel George Morton Collection.

Ayers and Mitchell will receive a small stipend to use Drexel’s collections, and they have one year in which to visit these collections and conduct their research. The Drexel collections made available through the CHSTM membership come from The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University’s Ewell Sale Stewart Library & Academy Archives, Drexel University College of Medicine’s Legacy Center Archives and Special Collections, and the Drexel University Libraries & Archives. The collections available through CHSTM focus on natural history, history of women in medicine, women's health, medical education, homeopathy, engineering and technical education.

The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University co-founded CHSTM in 2007, and the Drexel Libraries has managed this important consortial partnership on behalf of Drexel community since 2011. It gives seasoned and emerging scholars at Drexel and beyond opportunities to apply for research grants, dissertation fellowships, postdoctoral fellowship and more. CHSTM also offers scholars the opportunity to attend over 65 annual working group discussions, public lectures, film viewings and performances, and conduct unified searches of more than 4.4 million rare books and manuscripts housed in Consortium collections. The Consortium enables scholars to discover and access rich resources to promote understanding of the history of science, technology and medicine.   

For more information about Drexel’s membership in CHSTM, visit www.library.drexel.edu or contact libraries@drexel.edu

About CHSTM
The Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine brings together educational, cultural and scientific institutions to promote public and academic understanding of the history of science, technology and medicine. The Consortium awards fellowships for researchers, produces events for academics and for the public and provides online resources for teaching, learning and research. The Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine was founded in 2007, originally as a consortium of cultural and educational institutions across the Philadelphia area. The Consortium has since expanded to include leading institutions across the United States and Canada. The Consortium helps to make the collections and scholarly resources of the member institutions more broadly available for research in the history of science, technology and medicine.