Rutgers English is pleased to thank Barbara Howard for continuing to support the Daniel Francis Howard Travel Fellowships. These fellowships provide financial assistance for graduate students in English to pursue a month or more of Ph.D. research abroad.
The fellowships are named for Ms. Howard’s late husband Professor Daniel Howard, who joined the faculty in 1960 and became the Rutgers College English Chair in 1966. Professor Howard earned his Ph.D. from Yale, and some of his scholarly work included extensive research on the manuscripts of Samuel Butler in the British Museum in London. A Yorkshire native, Ms. Howard first met him on one of his research trips in 1968. In their years together, she saw at first hand how important traveling to archives for primary research could be. “Dan loved teaching at Rutgers, and conveyed that to everyone around him,” says Ms. Howard. Both of their sons, Matthew and Peter Howard, attended Rutgers, and both majored in English.
Ms. Howard’s new gift to Rutgers English insures that the program will continue for several more years. Howard Fellows have already done research on Victorian feminist theater, Welsh Romantic poetry, the eighteenth-century botanical exchange between England and the colonies, and contemporary London playwrights. The most recent recipient, Kathryn Steele, will spend time reading the unpublished correspondence of Samuel Richardson, who is considered the originator of the novel in English. Ms. Steele plans to study the interpretive debates Richardson carried on with his readers, particularly women readers writing to him about their reactions to his novel Clarissa. These letters are only available in the National Art Library of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Ms. Howard’s generous support will allow future graduate students to do interesting and innovative work with archival primary sources from around the world. Rutgers English is grateful to her for making this wonderful opportunity possible.
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More about the Howard Travel Fellowships
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