Historic Deerfield, a museum  of New England history and art, announces
the 1997 Summer Fellowship Program in Early American History and Material
Culture.  Six to eight undergraduates from across the country will be
chosen in April to spend nine weeks in Deerfield, Massachusetts, where
they will discuss and research the documents and artifacts of early
American history, and interpret Deerfields history to the general public
while studying other museums in New England and beyond.  The 1997 program
will run from Monday, June 16 to Saturday, August 16.

The Summer Fellows participate in seminar sessions in a classroom
setting, on walking tours, and in the museum houses themselves.  Topics
covered include American architecture, furniture, ceramics, silver,
textiles, gravestone art, Native Americans in the Connecticut River
Valley, the Puritan plain style sermon, the archaeological heritage of
Deerfield, the Colonial Revival in New England, and the challenges of
interpreting history to the general public.

The program is led by Kenneth Hafertepe, Director of Academic Programs at
Historic Deerfield.  Other members of the staffs of Historic Deerfield
and the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association make presentations about
their areas of academic expertise and about their role in the museum.

Fellows also attend the Historic Deerfield Summer Lecture Series and
other area lectures; in recent years Fellows have heard lectures in
Deerfield from Richard Bushman of Columbia University , Richard Candee of
Boston University, Barbara Carson of the College of William and Mary,
James F. OGorman of Wellesley College, and Jules Prown of Yale
University, as well as lectures elsewhere in the area from Laurel
Thatcher Ulrich  of Harvard University and Sir Peter Thornton, formerly
of the Victoria and Albert Museum and Sir John Soanes Museum.

Each Fellow will give guided tours five afternoons in each of three
historic houses, using information gathered in seminars and through
sessions with Historic Deerfields highly trained guiding staff.  Fellows
thus have the opportunity to study the collections up close, to meet
visitors from throughout the nation and around the world, and to
interpret the American past.

Each Fellow works on an individual research project, utilizing the
manuscript, printed, and artifacts collections at Historic Deerfield and
the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association.  The research topics must deal
with some aspect of the history or material culture of the Connecticut
River valley or with objects in the Deerfield collections.  Many Summer
Fellowship papers have become the basis for senior theses or for published.

The Fellows go on weekly field trips to other museums of history and art
in New England.  These include Old Sturbridge Village, Plimoth,
Plantation, the historic city of Boston, and the Yale University Art
Gallery.  At the end of the summer the Fellows make a week-long trip to
the south, visiting Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia and the Winterthur
Museum on Delaware.  At each stop the Fellows meets with museum staff
members for in-depth discussions of their interpretive philosophies.

Many Fellows go on to leading graduate programs in history and museum
studies, including the Winterthur Program in Early American Culture, the
Cooperstown Program in History Museum Studies, Boston University, the
College of William and Mary, and the University of Pennsylvania.  They
have gone on to hold positions at such institutions as the Amon Carter
Museum, the Bennington Museum, Monticello, and the Wadsworth Atheneum, as
well as positions at such academic institutions as Arizona State
University, the University of Missouri, and the University of Pennsylvania.

Historic Deerfield will accept between six and eight students who have
completed two or more years of college and who are of undergraduate
status as of January 1 of the year of the program.  Admission is by an
application form which must be supported by an official transcript and by
at least two letters of recommendation from college faculty members.
There is a non-refundable application fee of $15, and applications must
be completed by April 1.  Successful applicants will be notified by
mid-April.

The fellowship covers tuition, books, and field trip expenses.  Room and
board for nine weeks will cost $1400.  Financial aid is available for
students with demonstrated need.  Six hours credit is available through
the History Department of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst for
approximately $200.

For application forms and further information, contact Dr. Kenneth
Hafertepe, Director of Academic Programs, by mail at Historic Deerfield,
Inc., Deerfield, MA 01342, by telephone at 413-774-5581, or by e-mail at
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