Exploring Dutch Participation in the American Revolution FellowshipApplications due: February 1, 2026

With the generous support of the National Society of Colonial Daughters of the Seventeenth Century, the New Netherland Institute announces a new fellowship to fund research which sheds light on Dutch participation in the American Revolution.

Advanced graduate students and PhD holders in history and allied fields (including scholars of any rank and independent scholars) are invited to apply. The fellow will be responsible for carrying out original research on any aspect of the Dutch and the American Revolution. Possible topics include (but are not limited to) Dutch descendants in New York and their allegiances during the Revolution, financial support for the American Revolution from the Netherlands, and connections between Dutch colonies and the American colonies/new American Republic.

The fellow will be responsible creating a digital exhibition for the New Netherland Institute’s website based on their research and for creating a database of documents related to the Dutch and the American Revolution based on their research.

This a four-month fellowship and requires the fellow to work full time on their research project during the fellowship term. The fellow may choose any consecutive four months between March 1, 2026 and October 31, 2026. Please indicate in your application which four months you are applying for.

Total Fellowship Compensation is $18,000.

The applicant is required to have proficiency in early modern Dutch and to use Dutch for their research.

Remote work with digitized documents is permitted, and no extra funds are available for travel to archives. Potential archives to be investigated could include but are not limited to the Nationaal Archief in the Hague, the City Archives in Amsterdam, the Prize Papers at Kew, the New York State Library, and the New York City Municipal Archives.

The fellowship is open to both American and Dutch scholars.

The fellow is responsible for putting together a digital exhibition for the New Netherland Institute’s website based on the their research within the broad theme of the Dutch in the American Revolution (see our digital exhibition archive here: https://www.newnetherlandinstitute.org/history-and-heritage/digital-exhibitions). The fellow will provide the text, images, and image captions, and the New Netherland Institute will be responsible for laying out the digital exhibition and putting it online.

The fellow is also responsible for documenting the archives and printed primary sources consulted in a database that they will share with the New Netherland Institute.

Please apply by emailing nni@newnetherlandinstitute.org with a CV and a project proposal of no more than five double spaced pages that details the proposed research and digital exhibition in one PDF. Two letters of recommendation under separate cover are also required. Applicants and recommenders should use the subject line “Exploring Dutch Participation in the American Revolution” for their submissions.

Candidates who advance to the interview stage will be asked to supply a 10-20 page writing sample.

Questions? Email nni@newntherlandinstitute.org. We are happy to help.