Introducing the Women’s History Institute 2026 Summer Research Fellows
To celebrate Women’s History Month, the Selection Committee of the Women’s History Institute has the pleasure of announcing the names of the 2026 Summer Research Fellows. The Women’s History Institute’s Summer Research Fellowship supports the research of college and graduate students into the lives of women residing in the Hudson Valley, particularly during the time period mostly represented in the HHV collections: the 18th and 19th centuries. This year’s recipients will be researching 19th-century women’s experiences with family, education, medical care, and marginalization.
June Lambertson, Margaretta (Happy) Rockefeller Research Fellow
Juniper (June) Lambertson has just completed her BA at SUNY Purchase College, majoring in History and Arts Management. A recent research internship at the Philipse Manor Hall Historical Site, gave her experience in public history as well as a motivation to tell the stories of the historical lives of women from the Hudson Valley. Her plan is to examine Historic Hudson Valley’s manuscript collection to review and piece together the accounts and lives of widows living in 18th century Westchester County, learning the true history of these underrepresented women. She will also explore the economic, political, legal, and everyday trials and tribulations of both notable and commonplace widows as well as develop a comprehensive understanding of how these women used their widowhood to maintain individual freedoms that their married and single peers were not afforded at the time including owning property, voting, and citizenship.
“My proposal for the Woman’s History Institute’s summer fellowship is to delve into the lives of 18th century widowed women and develop a narrative of the interesting intersections of revolutionary law and women’s rights.”
Zahra Virani, Women’s History Institute Summer Research Fellow
Zahra Virani is a senior at Yale graduating in May 2026 with a B.A. in Urban Studies and the History of Art. She grew up in both Port Jervis, New York, and Houston, Texas. Her research explores the intersections of art, empire, and the built environment, with a particular interest in how cultural exchange shapes domestic space and identity. She is currently completing a senior thesis examining the impact of Islamic art on the homes of nineteenth-century artists, focusing on Frederic Edwin Church’s Olana and Frederic Leighton’s Leighton House. During her time as a Women’s History Institute fellow, she will explore how women and girls in the nineteenth century preserved memory and history through scrapbooks and friendship albums beginning with those in the manuscript collections of Historic Hudson Valley.
“I am proposing a research project focused on scrapbooks and friendship albums in the Hoffman Family Collection, with a particular emphasis on materials created or preserved by the women of the family. My interest in this topic is rooted not only in my academic work on material culture and domestic archives, but also in a lifelong personal practice.”
Mindy Chase, Women’s History Institute Summer Research Fellow
Mindy Chase graduated summa cum laude from the County College of Morris in 2025 and is currently in her third year of a BA at Drew University, majoring in History with a minor in Women and Gender Studies. She served as Co-President of the Alpha Kappa Kappa Chapter of Phi Theta Kappa spring semester 2025 and was also recognized on the Dean’s Honor List for five consecutive semesters. In the course of her Women’s History Institute’s fellowship, she will examine Historic Hudson Valley’s collection of friendship quilts. Through analysis of fabric, design motifs, inscriptions, and material condition, alongside archival and genealogical research, her aim is to identify the makers, trace networks of relationships, and situate the quilts within their broader cultural contexts, particularly how these quilts illuminate women’s friendships, community roles, and everyday concerns.
“For this fellowship I propose a research project on the friendship quilts that are in Historic Hudson Valley’s collection. I hope to learn about the women who made them, the communities they belonged to, and the meanings embedded in these quilts.”
Fellows will spend time at Historic Hudson Valley’s Regional History Center over the course of the summer, examining primary documents (including letters, diaries, friendhip albums and scrapbooks) and the Library’s extensive collection of secondary sources and reference works as well as curatorial objects in our collections and our historic houses. Their investigations will be guided by Historic Hudson Valley’s Research Librarian, Catalina Hannan, and Caitlin Monaco, Archives and Collection Manager.
