MOLLOY GRAD INVESTIGATES FREDERICK DOUGLASS MANUSCRIPTS

ARCHBISHOP MOLLOY GRAD INVESTIGATES FREDERICK DOUGLASS MANUSCRIPTS

NEW YORK, NY (JULY 7, 2006) – This summer, Meredith Meagher, a Hunter College student and Archbishop Molloy graduate, is spending six weeks researching Frederick Douglass manuscripts – many of them unpublished – in the Gilder Lehrman Collection in New York City. Meagher, a Maspeth native, is one of fifteen Gilder Lehrman History Scholars selected from more than 300 applicants nationwide. The program, open to undergraduates entering their junior or senior year, combines historical research, seminars with eminent historians, and behind-the-scenes tours of rare archives in New York City. This year, the scholars’ objective is the publication of a Frederick Douglass “Reader” containing facsimiles and transcriptions of original documents, along with historical introductions and contextual materials, intended primarily for the use of teachers and students.

“These are the brightest young historians in America,” said Professor James G. Basker, president of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, which sponsors the program. “We see them as a kind of Rhodes Scholar among history majors.”

Applicants to the scholarship program this year represented 195 colleges and universities across the United States and Canada. This year’s scholars hail from: Colgate University; Trinity College; University of Texas at Austin; Yale University; Hunter College; Michigan State University; Northwestern University; Carleton College; University of California, Berkeley; Columbia University; Princeton University; Emory University; University of North Carolina-Asheville; Brock University; College of William and Mary.

Now in its fourth year, the Gilder Lehrman History Scholars Program has included students who have gone on to history graduate programs at Columbia University, the University of Michigan, and the University of North Carolina. Several are working for history research organizations. One is a winner of the renowned Marshall Scholarship. Another was recently awarded a Gates Cambridge Scholarship.

Founded in 1994, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History promotes the study and love of American history. Increasingly national and international in scope, the Institute targets audiences ranging from students to scholars to the general public. It creates history-centered schools and academic research centers, organizes seminars and enrichment programs for educators, partners with school districts to implement Teaching American History grants, produces print and electronic publications and traveling exhibitions, and sponsors lectures by eminent historians. The Institute also funds awards including the Lincoln, Frederick Douglass and George Washington Book Prizes and offers fellowships for scholars to work in history archives, including the Gilder Lehrman Collection.

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The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

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www.gilderlehrman.org