Doctoral Fellowship with the National Trust on Horticultural Collections

Female collaborative PhD student working at a desk in the British Library office.

The British Library and the National Trust invite applications to a joint doctoral fellowship on horticultural collections.

Published date:

Applications for this opportunity have now closed.

 

The British Library and the National Trust are delighted to invite applications for a second three-month fellowship in the 2022/23 round of our joint scheme for a project “Exploring British Library and National Trust horticultural collections.”

Our doctoral fellowships are part of a partnership between our organisations, launched in 2021, which aims to establish collaborative research and increase public knowledge about how our collections have intertwined throughout history. They provide professional development opportunities to current PhD students to gain experience working with cultural organisations.

This fellowship will explore the rich story of gardening and plants through the Library's world-leading collections of horticultural books, manuscripts and other material. It will explore themes including plant life, community, colonialism and more, looking at the history of plants and gardens and what they mean to us today.

Primarily based at the Library, the project will concentrate on printed book collections in the Library’s Printed Heritage Collections department, as well as collaboration with Western Manuscripts, India Office Archives and European & American departments. 

The work with the Trust will focus on library collections at its garden properties, such as Stourhead, Nymans or Biddulph Grange. The fellow could explore the relationship between the garden, library and archive material and recently commissioned research held by the gardens teams.

 

Funding and how to apply

The appointed fellow will receive a stipend equivalent to the UKRI minimum doctoral stipend (plus London weighting), plus reasonable expenses for any fellowship-related travel.

Further information about the project, eligibility and how to apply are available in the following documents:

Application Pack: Exploring British Library and National Trust horticultural collections for download (includes the Project Profile and Application Guidelines)

Application Form for download

Application deadline: 12pm Thursday 6th April 2023

Application forms should be submitted to research.development@bl.uk

Answers to many common questions can be found in the application guidelines. If your question is not answered there, please contact us at the same address; please note that enquiries may be passed on to relevant colleagues at the British Library or the National Trust to respond.

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