Professor Dawn Odell is awarded three grants

Associate Professor of Art History Dawn Odell has landed her second, third, and fourth external individual research grants this calendar year! Following her receipt of an American Philosophical Society Franklin Research grant in March, Dr. Odell has since been awarded short-term fellowships at 1) the Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library, 2) the APS Library, and 3) the Library Company of Philadelphia. All of these grants support research that will be incorporated into Dr. Odell’s forthcoming book, “Chinese Art in Eighteenth-Century Europe and America”, which focuses on the history of Andreas Everadus van Braam Houckgeest (1739-1801). The residential Winterthur Research Fellowship will enable Dr. Odell to conduct research at their preeminent library and museum collections in Wilmington, Delaware this summer; she will be learning from the museum’s curators about the Chinese export wares in their collections, particularly Chinese paintings on glass and Chinese clay figurines. She will use the second award to spend a month in Philadelphia during 2018-19, as a Resident Research Fellow at the American Philosophical Society Library. The APS Library houses over 11 million manuscript items and describes itself as “a leading international center for research in the history of American science and technology and its European roots, as well as early American history and culture.” Van Braam was himself a member of the APS, and Dr. Odell will be investigating letters exchanged between van Braam and other members of the society, including founder Benjamin Franklin. Finally, she will spend another month conducting research during winter break in Center City, Philadelphia atThe Library Company, which was also founded by Benjamin Franklin. While there she will research printed books and other materials relating to Médéric Louis Moreau de Saint-Méry, who published Van Braam’s memoir.

These are all competitive fellowships, and the fact that Dr. Odell has successfully secured four (!) this year points to the tremendous strength of her project and her scholarship.