SoFCB Junior Fellows Gain Hands-On Experience at NYC Field School


A photo of two women standing behind a table on which are several books. They are examining a large-format book lying open before them.

Barrye Brown (left), Curator of Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, leading a hands-on activity for SoFCB Junior Fellows with rare materials from the Schomburg’s collection.

Founded in 2017, the Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography (SoFCB) is a Rare Book School program that seeks to advance the study of texts, images, and artifacts as material objects through capacious, interdisciplinary scholarship. Each year, the Society, which now numbers more than 100 members, selects ten early-career scholars to join the program as Junior Fellows through an open application process that considers their work with textual artifacts. Junior Fellows come from a variety of fields ranging from literature, medieval studies, history, and art history to musicology, anthropology, religious studies, classics, and more. As part of the program, each fellow receives hands-on bibliographical training from RBS, as well as a plethora of opportunities to foster collegial conversations about material texts across disciplines and institutions. Fellows connect with each other and the broader bibliographical community via SoFCB-funded symposia, membership meetings, book parties, and annual bibliographical field schools.

These field schools, in particular, have become a staple of SoFCB programming. Every year, Junior Fellows undertake a targeted visit to major special collections, antiquarian bookstores, conservation labs, auction houses, and private collections in a U.S. city. Each field school is specially tailored to fellows’ research interests, thus providing them with opportunities to meet with leading professionals who can point them to resources pertinent to their research.

Photo of a group of people gathered closely around a table on which are several old documents. A man on the left points at one of these while the others lean in to view it.

Collector Mark Tomasko (left) exhibiting items from his private collection of U.S. security printing for SoFCB Junior Fellows on a visit to his home.

This past September, RBS staff members Connor Smith and Barbara Heritage led six Junior Fellows on a bibliographical field school to New York City. Attendees included two doctoral candidates, a librarian, a curator, a lecturer, and an assistant professor. Together, the group met leading professionals, who hosted a series of behind-the-scenes, hands-on visits at seven locations, including James Cummins Bookseller, the Grolier Club, the Morgan Library & Museum, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Sotheby’s, the private collection of Mark Tomasko, and the William Reese Company. At each venue, Junior Fellows met innovative and talented people who curate, research, collect, and/or market material texts, and had the opportunity to learn about how to form, research, and share collections with others.

For fellows, it was an eye-opening experience. As one participant remarked, “Every visit of the field school held surprises and amazing discoveries for me.” Others reflected on the lasting intellectual, professional, and personal connections that they had made as well as their hope to continue working with the people and objects they encountered during their trip. We are grateful to our colleagues who welcomed us into their collections: Barrye Brown, Shira Buchsbaum, James Cummins III, Jesse Erickson, Chris Finis, Thomas J. Gillan, Ella Hall, Sarah Hassan, Selby Kiffer, Jeremy Markowitz, Mark Tomasko, and Lauren Miller Walsh. 

RBS is currently accepting applications for the SoFCB Junior Fellows program. The deadline is Wednesday, 19 November 2025 at 11:59 p.m. ET. Visit the Junior Fellows webpage to learn how to apply.