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University Archives and Records Center
University of Pennsylvania
Guide to the
McNeil Center For Early American Studies
Records, 1959 - 1968, 1976 - 1992
UPB 159
7 Cubic ft.
Prepared by Theresa R. Snyder
1992
Inventory available as a PDF file (57 kb, 28 pages)
View entire guide as a PDF file (80 kb, 37 pages)
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Access is granted in accordance with the Protocols for the University Archives and Records Center.
PROVENANCE
Transferred to the University Archives, May 1991.
ARRANGEMENT
The records for the McNeil Center for Early American Studies (originally known as the Philadelphia Center for Early American Studies) are organized into four series:
- Administration records, 1976-1992
- Fellowship records, 1977-1990
- Seminar papers, 1978-1989
- Project records, 1959-1968, 1977-1988.
The Administrative series is broken into two subseries, the General files, arranged alphabetically, and the Financial files. The Financial subseries is further divided into two groups, the development records, which are arranged alphabetically by corporate sponsor, and the budgetary and expenditure files, which are arranged chronologically in accordance with the University's July 1 to June 30 fiscal year.
Fellowship records are organized chronologically, by academic year of award, and within each year, alphabetically by applicant. Access to the Seminar papers series is strictly alphabetical by author. The Project records are arranged chronologically by project. Since access to the Fellowship and Seminar series is somewhat limited by this arrangement, an additional index of individuals and topical terms for these series supplements the inventory.
AGENCY HISTORY
The Center was founded in 1978 as the Philadelphia Center for Early American Studies with a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Renamed in honor of its benefactor Robert L. McNeil, Jr., in 1998, the McNeil Center for Early American Studies is endowed by gifts from the Robert L. McNeil, Jr., Charitable Trust, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Barra Foundation, the University of Pennsylvania, and other donors.
The Center was organized as a consortium of academic institutions and historical repositories in the Philadelphia area and includes Bryn Mawr College, Haverford College, Swarthmore College, Villanova University, Temple University, the University of Pennsylvania, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the Library Company of Philadelphia, the American Philosophical Society, and the David Library of the American Revolution. Its mission is to "promote basic research in all areas of early American history and culture" through fellowships, seminars, assistance with publication of research, and other special projects.
The Advisory Council is composed of distinguished scholars in the field from comparable research institutions as well as one representative, serving ex-officio, from each institution participating in the consortium. The staff consists of a general director funded by the University of Pennsylvania and several senior fellows, pre-doctoral fellows and travelling fellows.
Fellowships are awarded primarily to advanced graduate students conducting research in early American history and culture; the period of specialization typically does not extend beyond 1850. Fellowships are generally awarded to researchers studying an aspect of the Delaware Valley as this type of work is most easily supported by the archival holdings in the area. Some fellowships, however, are awarded to scholars who have done their major research elsewhere and need to use local sources. Scholars in the writing stage of a project who are in need of scholarly support and criticism are also eligible for support. The fellowships are awarded for one year, and the recipient is required to establish residence in the area for the duration of the fellowship year and to participate in Center seminars. Since 1978 the Center has granted Dissertation Fellowships to 59 graduate students from 22 American and British universities.
Seminars are presented up to sixteen times per year and serve a broad range of scholars. Each fellow is responsible for presenting a paper during his or her year in residence. Additional papers are solicited from outside scholars who are doing related work. The papers are distributed prior to the meeting date to allow attenders an opportunity to prepare, ensuring a lively, constructive discussion. The presenters give a brief introduction of the paper and then entertain questions, comments and criticisms from the 30 to 50 people attending. The papers represent new research and are often published as articles or as part of a monograph.
The publication and special projects of the Center have included the Papers of William Penn, the Biographical Dictionary of Early Pennsylvania Legislators Project, the Transformation of Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley, 1750-1850 Project, and several national conferences.
The Papers of William Penn is a five volume set of published and unpublished works of William Penn, published in 1981-1987 by the University of Pennsylvania Press. The first four volumes consist of a complete annotated edition of letters and papers by Penn and include background and biographical essays. Richard S. Dunn and Mary Maples Dunn served as the General Editors for all volumes. The Associate Editors for Volume One, 1644-1679, were Richard A. Ryerson and Scott M. Wilds; Jean R. Soderlund served as Assistant Editor. For Volume Two, 1680-1684, Richard A. Ryerson, Scott M. Wilds, and Jean R. Soderlund were Associate Editors; Ned C. Landsman served as Special Editor. Marianne S. Wokeck, Joy Wiltenburg, Alison Duncan Hirsch, and Craig W. Horle acted as Editors for Volume Three, 1685-1700 and for Volume Four, 1701-1718. The interpretive bibliographical study of Penn's published work, the final and fifth volume, was edited by Edwin Bronner and David Fraser.
Lawmaking and Legislators in Pennsylvania : A Biographical Dictionary, Volume One: 1682-1709 (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991), the first published product of the Biographical Dictionary Project, includes biographical and background essays on Pennsylvania legislators which has previously been unavailable. The Editors are Craig W. Horle, Marianne S. Wokeck, Jeffrey L. Scheib, Joseph S. Foster, David Hauggaard, Rosalind J. Beiler, and Joy Wiltenburg.
The Transformation of Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley, 1750- 1850 Project was a seven year research project on the early history of the Delaware Valley initially directed by Richard Beeman and later by Michael Zuckerman. Each year the focus of the project was on a single topic. These topics are the Peopling of Philadelphia, 1983-1984; Commercial Capitalism, 1984-1985; Religion, 1985-1986; Science, Medicine, and Technology, 1986-1987; Industrialization, 1987-1988; Communications, 1988-1989; and Community Life, 1989-1990. Fellows were considered in relation to the topic for each particular year. Works-in- progress or recently published works were discussed at brown-bag lunch meetings. Evening colloquia were held for 30 to 40 people, usually graduate students and professors from other local institutions, and a formal, two-day conference with presentations by the Transformation fellows is held each year. Each phase of the project produced a bibliography of primary and secondary sources for the topic that year. Additionally, it is expected that papers resulting from the work of each phase will be published in various scholarly journals.
Some of the special projects supported by the Center have been national scholarly conferences and include: "The World of William Penn" Conference, 1981; "The World Turned Upside Down: Working People in England and America, 1660-1790" Conference, 1981; "The Founding of Pennsylvania, 1682-1800" Conference, 1982; and "The Creation of the American Constitution Conference", 1984. The results were published in The World of William Penn (Philadelphia, 1981), edited by Richard S. Dunn and Mary Maples Dunn.
"The World of William Penn" Conference held in March, 1981 in conjunction with the Institute of Early American History and Culture, the Conference on Quaker Historians and Archivists. The conference brought together distinguished scholars of the late seventeenth century and addressed the political, economic, intellectual, religious, and social world in which William Penn lived. Over 400 people attended the conference. The results were published in Beyond Confederation, edited by Richard Beeman, Stephen Botein, and Edward C. Carter III (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1987).
"The World Turned Upside Down: Working People in England and America, 1660-1790" Conference held in November, 1981 addressed the changes taking place in the lives of working men and women in England and America at a critical period of activism and innovation. Christopher Hill's book, The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas During the English Revolution has been a stimulus to this field of research, and he acted as moderator for two of these working sessions.
The tercentenary of the founding of Pennsylvania was celebrated with "The Founding of Pennsylvania, 1682-1800" Conference held in October, 1982. This one day conference was concerned with the religious and ethnic diversity of the colony and then the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Another anniversary conference, "The Creation of the American Constitution Conference," was held in October, 1984 in collaboration with the American Philosophical Society and the Institute of Early American History and Culture. The conference was designed to generate new research on the Constitutional period, encourage scholarly debate on the works presented, and publish the works in time for the bicentennial of the Constitution in 1987.
SCOPE AND CONTENT
The records, 1959-1968, 1976-1992, for the Center document the efforts of a consortium of local archival and educational institutions to "promote basic research in all areas of early American history and culture" through fellowships, seminars, assistance with publications, and other special projects. The collection will serve as a valuable resource to researchers interested in early American history and culture as well as those interested in the corporate structure of this and other consortia.
The Administrative series, 1976-1992, although small in size, offers the researcher insight into the operation of the Center from its inception to its demonstrated success over a span of fifteen years. There are planning files, 1976-1985; annual reports, 1984-1988; announcements, 1979-1985; brochures, 1978-1992; correspondence files, 1976-1986; personnel information, 1977-1985; and mailing lists, 1984- 1989. The development files, 1977-1989, consist of grant applications, correspondence, and reports. Although the Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment of Humanities were the major funding agencies for the Center, there is a wealth of information on other corporate sponsors as well as the extensive fund raising efforts of Stephanie G. Wolf and Drew Lewis. Budgetary and expenditure information, 1979-1990, finish out the Administrative series and include annual budgets, Comptroller or Office of Research Administration monthly report sheets, and other financial information for each fiscal year.
The Fellowship files, 1977-1990, constitutes the bulk of the collection. This series contains files on all applicants for doctoral, post-doctoral, and travel fellowships. At the beginning of each fellowship year there is a file which lists fellowship recipients; occasionally these files contain valuative information on all applicants for that year. Applicant files contain statements of purpose, letters of recommendations, and writing samples, often in the form of research papers, speeches, articles, and book chapters. As a result, there is a wealth of scholarly research within in this series. The Seminar series, 1978-1989, also offers a variety, although somewhat smaller in scope, of scholarly work.
The final Projects series, 1959-1968, 1977-1988 includes administrative information on the various national conferences supported by the Center. There is a small amount correspondence and other information, 1959-1968, on an earlier "Papers of William Penn" Conference held in 1968 to promote the idea of a publication of the papers of William Penn, a goal later realized by the Center in 1981. The remainder of the series consists of administrative files and papers for other conferences and projects including: the Papers of William Penn; the Biographical Dictionary of Early Pennsylvania Legislators Project; the Transformation of Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley, 1750-1850 Project; "The World of William Penn" Conference, 1981; "The World Turned Upside Down: Working People in England and America, 1660- 1790" Conference, 1981; "The Founding of Pennsylvania, 1682-1800" Conference, 1982; and "The Creation of the American Constitution" Conference, 1984.
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