Dr. Curt M. Cardwell Memorial Scholarship Fund

Dr. Curt Cardwell taught United States and modern world history at Drake University from 2005 until his passing in 2021. He taught the capstone seminar in US history regularly, and it was one of his favorite teaching assignments because he could share his passions for historiography and primary source research with students. As digitization of archival sources became more common, Dr. Cardwell wished we could do more to support motivated students to access digitized sources to explore their research questions. Donations made in his memory have been set aside in the Dr. Curt M. Cardwell Memorial Scholarship Fund for precisely that purpose.

Students may apply to seek funding for digitized archival sources in connection with a research project for a course, capstone, thesis project, or independent study taught or supervised by a faculty member in the Department of History. Up to $150 may be requested for subscriptions to historical newspapers and journals, access to census records, scans of manuscript sources from distant archives, etc. Note: awards may not be used for expensive high-resolution images of publication quality, but they may be used for reference-quality images.

Interested students should submit this survey for the department chair's review. The survey requires the following information:

• The applicant's contact details
• The course, the professor they are working with, the desired digitized source and repository, and the amount of money sought
• A description of the project, clearly stating the research question and its significance and explaining how the digitized source will help explore the question (in no more than 250 words)

Applicants can expect to receive a response to their application within one week of submission. If awarded, students will need to send exact details of what the department should purchase on their behalf.

Award recipients should acknowledge funding support. The following offers two examples.

• In written work: “Research for this project was supported by the Dr. Curt M. Cardwell Memorial Scholarship.”
• In verbal remarks at presentations: “I would like to thank the Dr. Curt M. Cardwell Memorial Scholarship for helping to support my research.”

If you would like to contribute to supporting our History students in memory of Dr. Cardwell, please visit https://alumni.drake.edu/giveonline, choose "Other" in the Give To dropdown menu, and type in "Cardwell Memorial Fund."