Mystic Seaport Museum invites applications for the annual competition for The Paul Cuffe Memorial Fellowship.

Since 1989, the Museum’s Paul Cuffe Fellowship has provided funds to researchers from universities, colleges, and museums. The fellowships are offered to encourage research that considers the participation of Native and African Americans in the maritime activities of America, particularly in New England.

Two options are available: 

1. The Paul Cuffe Memorial Fellowship (with rolling deadline) or

2. The Paul Cuffe Memorial Fellowship with Summer Graduate Classes (deadline March 8, 2024)

The first option supports research and writing, a portion of which should normally be carried out in the Mystic area. The second option builds the research and writing into five weeks of residence and summertime University of Connecticut graduate courses held at the Mystic Seaport Museum Munson Institute. These fellowship options are made possible through the generosity of a local private foundation.

Cuffe Fellows are requested to write a report on their research within one year.

Paul Cuffe

Paul Cuffe, born in 1759 on Cuttyhunk Island, Massachusetts, was the son of a Wampanoag mother and a formerly enslaved African father. Active in the Quaker community, he founded a free school in Westport, Massachusetts. Before his death in 1817 he had become a sea captain, shipowner, landowner, and respected community leader.

Research Facilities

The research collection of the G. W. Blunt White Library has nearly 1 million documents pertaining to maritime history. These include 1,300 ships’ logs and journals, ledgers, diaries, and documents from the whaling, fishing, and shipping industries.

Nearby institutions with relevant research materials include:

• American Antiquarian Society – Worcester, MA

• John Carter Brown Library – Providence, RI

• Nantucket Historical Society & Atheneum – Nantucket, MA

• Martha’s Vineyard Museum – Martha’s Vineyard, MA

• New Bedford Whaling Museum – New Bedford, MA

• New Bedford Public Library – New Bedford, MA

• Yale University – New Haven, CT