In 2009, the Thomas Paine National Historical Association (TPNHA) partnered with Iona University to preserve and develop its rich collection of writings and other items by and about Thomas Paine. Founded in 1884, the TPNHA archive spans nearly three centuries, ranging from manuscripts and artifacts belonging to Paine and his contemporaries, to the vast institutional records and correspondence of the Historical Association itself: documents related to progressive era luminaries like W.E.B. DuBois and Charles Beard as well as the development of photography and media in the early twentieth century, through the educational activism of the mid twentieth century. The collection is a vast one, relevant to scholars across a wide range of chronological and disciplinary fields, and is particularly strong on the historical memory of Thomas Paine, institutional political and social justice movements, and early American material and print culture.
The ITPS thanks the staff of Ryan Library at Iona University, Director of Libraries Rick Palladino, Assistant Director of Libraries Natalka Sawchuk, and Technical Services Coordinator Diana Kiel for their assistance in shaping and stewarding the TPNHA Collection. Former ITPS Gardiner Archival Fellows Dr. Barry Goldberg, Dr. Alexandra Montgomery, and Dr. Miriam Liebman made important contributions to the project in its early stages.
The collection is further supported by the generosity of Sid Lapidus, who provided an extensive library of secondary literature to supplement and contextualize the primary documents in the TPNHA archive.
Archival Fellowship Program
Thanks to the generous support of the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation, in early 2018 the ITPS launched the Gardiner Archival Fellowship program. The program focuses on a four-step curatorial program for the TPNHA collection: inventory and cataloguing; a research database; and the digitization of the collection. Additional information will be shared here as the work progresses, and you can check out some of the highlights so far either in-person at the Ryan Library, or on our twitter page. You can explore items already cataloged and searchable in OCLC. For more on the research database, please see the DH TAB.
The archival fellowship program includes year-long dissertation and post-doctoral appointments. When the application cycle opens, information is made available both on this site and through the Iona HR department. See our Former Fellows page for information about our previous fellows.
Fellowship Collaboration with the University of Virginia Press
Beginning in the fall of 2020, the ITPS is partnering with University of Virginia Press on a two-year post-doctoral fellowship. In this collaboration, the post-doctoral fellow will oversee the development of the TPNHA research database – which you can learn more about in the digital humanities section – and publish a book in a new public-history oriented ITPS series at UVAP with history and social sciences editor Dr. Nadine Zimmerli. To learn more about Dr. Alexi Garrett, our inaugural fellow, go to the Staff & Affiliates Page.
