MISSOURI STATE ARCHIVES ANNOUNCES
SUPREME COURT OF
MISSOURI HISTORICAL SOCIETY
2011 ROBERT ELDRIDGE SEILER FELLOWSHIP

The Missouri State Archives announces a research opportunity for qualified applicants interested in the study of judicial records held by the Missouri State Archives in Jefferson City and/or its St. Louis branch.

The Archives' judicial records holdings comprise millions of pages of legal records from the eighteenth century through the present and their unique nature yields documentation and primary materials found in no other repository, e.g., briefs, motions, circuit and appellate decisions, related correspondence, transcripts, notes, photographs, exhibits, and oral arguments. These records provide a history of broad topics in Missouri's experience, such as slavery, women's issues, the Civil War, the environment, the Ozarks, fur trapping, and steamboats.

The Seiler Fellowship, in the amount of three thousand dollars, will be awarded to an established scholar or qualified doctoral candidate to study any series of court records held by the Missouri State Archives. This monetary award is intended to defray travel and living expenses, as well as other work-related costs.

Applicants for the Seiler Fellowship should submit a current curriculum vitae and a brief description of their proposed research topic. It is expected that the recipient's description of his/her research interest will demonstrate how the research would benefit from studying the Archives' judicial records. The successful candidate will be designated as the Supreme Court of Missouri Historical Society 2011 Robert Eldridge Seiler Fellow. At the completion of the Seiler Fellow’s research, the recipient must submit a work of publishable quality to the Archives.

The Robert Eldridge Seiler Fellow is required to include an acknowledgement of the Missouri State Archives/Supreme Court of Missouri Historical Society Robert Eldridge Seiler Fellowship in any work(s) resulting from the research funded.  In addition, Fellows are to provide the Archives with a copy of such work(s).

Review of completed applications will begin on May 15. These materials may be sent to:

Dr. Shelly J. Croteau, Assistant State Archivist
Missouri State Archives
P.O. Box 1747
600 West Main St.
Jefferson City, MO 65102

(Voice: 573/751-4303 or E-mail: shelly.croteau@sos.mo.gov). Notification of awards will be made by May 27.