J. Franklin Jameson Fellow

Joanne B. Freeman, an assistant professor at Yale University, has been selected as the 2000-01 J. Franklin Jameson Fellow for her project "The Field of Honor: Dueling, Honor, and American National Character." At the Library of Congress, which cosponsors the fellowship, Freeman will research honor culture with its code duello and conflicts. From the "sacred honor" in the Declaration of Independence to the western shoot-outs of California in the 1840s, Freeman will examine honor as a truly national phenomenon with colonial origins and regional disputes. By looking at personal expressions of honor over a broad span of time among diverse populations, the project will recover honor culture as a key determinant of social behavior in the period between the Revolution and the Civil War.

Freeman received her PhD and MA from the University of Virginia.

2000 NASA Fellow

Jeremy Kinney, a PhD candidate in the history department of Auburn University, was awarded the 2000-01 Fellowship in Aerospace History, which is sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Kinney's dissertation topic—“Spearhead of the Aeronautical Revolution: America's Development of the Variable-Pitch Propeller"—will also serve as his fellowship project. He plans to utilize research material available at NASA's history office and archives, the National Air and Space Museum, the National Archives and Records Administration, the Patent and Trademark Office, the Library of Congress, and the Washington Navy Yard for his investigation.

The variable-pitch propeller, considered a revolutionary innovation in aeronautical technology, resulted in a dramatic improvement in the overall performance of the airplane. Kinney explores its invention, development, and introduction through interwoven technical, social, and cultural dimensions in 1920s and 1930s America.