MIDDLEBURG, Va. – The National Sporting Library has selected nine recipients for its John H. Daniels Fellowship for 2010-2011. The NSL received 42 applications from scholars in ten countries.

Fellowship projects encompass a wide range of topics from the fields of history, art history, fashion theory, and literature. Historian Pellom McDaniels, III, is writing a biography of African-American jockey, Isaac Murphy (1861-1896), whose percentile of races won (44%) has never been surpassed. Rebecca Splan, a professor at Virginia Tech’s MARE Center in Middleburg, is the NSL’s first fellow in equine science. The NSL’s collection of angling books will aid Finnish scholar, Mikko Saikku, in writing a history of Atlantic salmon fishing. Alison Goodrum, a professor of fashion theory from England, will be researching the history of riding apparel from 1904-1949. Art historians Carmen Niekrasz and James Glisson will examine the hunting images of two important artists of different eras, the 16^th-century Flemish artist Jan van der Straet or Stradanus (1523-1605) and American painter, Martin Johnson Heade (1819-1904). Patricia Akhimie, a doctoral student from Columbia University, is analyzing the NSL’s rare early books on hunting, hawking, and shooting. Elizabeth Letts is writing the rags-to-riches tale of the show jumping horse, Snowman, for Ballantine Books. Snowman was rescued from a slaughterhouse truck by horseman Harry de Leyer, and later went on to win the National Jumper Competition in 1958-59. Medical historian James Alsop of MacMaster University in Canada is exploring how riding has been used for centuries to promote health and fitness.

The Fellowship program began in 2007 in memory of John H. Daniels (1921-2006), a member of the Board of Directors, and provides stipends and complimentary housing to researchers working on topics related to horse and field sports. Since 2007, the NSL has awarded fellowships to a total of 24 researchers from the United States and from England, Canada, Finland, France, and Ireland.

The next deadline for applications is February 1, 2011. For more information, contact Elizabeth Tobey, Director of Communications and Research, at 540-687-6542 x 11 or fellowship@nsl.org or visit http://www.nsl.org/fellowship.html.

2010-2011 John H. Daniels Fellows

Patricia Akhimie, Doctoral Student in English Literature, Columbia University (New York City, N.Y.), “’See you not a hawk?’: The Visual Vocabulary of Early Modern Hunting, Fowling, & Hawking.” (2 weeks).

James Alsop, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of History, McMaster University (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada), “Riding for Life: Equestrian Health and Fitness in Anglo-American History.” (1 month).

James Glisson, Doctoral Candidate in Art History, Northwestern University, (Chicago, Ill.), “The Hunter’s Eye in Martin Johnson Heade’s Landscapes and Still Lives,” (2 weeks).

Alison Goodrum, Ph.D., Reader in Fashion, Department of Fashion Marketing, Management and Communication, Nottingham Trent University, (Nottingham, England), “’What a Dashing, Positively Smashing, Spectacle…’ Context & Culture in Representations of Riding Apparel, People, & Places (1904 to 1949).” (3 months).

Elizabeth Letts, Independent Writer, Chadds Ford, Pa., “The Cinderella Horse.” (1 month).

Pellom McDaniels, III, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of History & American Studies, University of Missouri-Kansas City, “The Prince of Jockeys: The Life & Career of Isaac Murphy,” (2 weeks).

Carmen Niekrasz, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Scholar in Art History, Covesville, Va., “The Indoor Chase: The Venationes of Johannes Stradanus & the Flemish Hunting Tapestry.” (2 months).

Mikko Saikku, Ph.D., Docent & Associate Professor, North American Studies Program, University of Helsinki, Finland, “Anglers & the Conservation of Atlantic Salmon Stocks in North America, 1850s-1950s.” (2 weeks).

Rebecca Splan, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Equine Science, MARE Center (Middleburg, Va.), Virginia Polytechnic University, “In the Beginning: A Comparative Study of Early Stud Books.” (2 weeks).

The National Sporting Library and Fine Art Museum is a 501(c)(3) non-profit research center and is open to the public with free admission. Its 17,000-book collection covers a wide range of horse and field sports, including foxhunting, Thoroughbred racing, dressage, eventing, steeplechasing, polo, coaching, shooting, and angling. Over 4,000 rare books from the sixteenth century onwards are housed in the F. Ambrose Clark Rare Book Room. The Library owns important manuscript, archives, periodicals, and audovisual materials relating to field sports. The John H. Daniels Fellowship program supports the research of visiting scholars. The Library hosts art exhibitions and holds many fine works of sporting art, including paintings, sculpture, and works-on-paper in its permanent collection. The National Sporting Art Museum will open in 2011 on  the Library campus  in the historic Vine Hill mansion, with 11 galleries featuring temporary exhibits and the Museum’s  permanent collection of American & European fine sporting art.