Funder: William Nelson Cromwell Foundation
Due Dates (Anticipated): June 2027 (Application deadline)
Funding Amounts: $5,000 fellowships; award number and amounts at the Foundation’s discretion
Summary: Supports early-career scholars researching and writing in American legal history.
Key Information: Intended for dissertation-stage scholars and recent graduate-degree recipients working on a first major monograph or research project.
Description
The William Nelson Cromwell Foundation offers annual fellowships supporting research and writing in American legal history by early-career scholars. The program generally serves researchers writing a PhD dissertation or equivalent project, as well as recent graduate-degree recipients developing their first major monograph or research project. Projects should place law, broadly construed, at their center and explain what the research will reveal about law.
The Foundation administers the fellowships with assistance from the American Society for Legal History (ASLH). The Society’s Committee for Research Fellowships and Awards reviews applications and recommends recipients to the Foundation, whose trustees determine awards. The Foundation was established to encourage legal historical scholarship, particularly concerning the colonial and early national periods of the United States.
