Since it first opened its Research Room in 1959, the Harry S. Truman Library Presidential Library & Museum has welcomed nearly 15,000 historians, writers and scholars, representing more than 40 nations.
From the beginning, the Truman Library Institute, the Truman Library’s nonprofit partner, has provided grants-in-aid for students and scholars who otherwise might find it financially difficult to travel to the Truman Library in Independence, Missouri, to conduct research at an archive that includes more than:
• 15,000,000 pages of manuscript materials, of which approximately 6,500,000 are White House files
• 100,000 still pictures
• 500+ hours of disc and tape recordings
• 400 motion pictures
• Approximately 500 oral histories
• 75 hours of videotape recordings
• 30,000 books, 10,000 periodicals and 1,400 microfilm copies of printed materials
To date, the Truman Library Institute has awarded more than $3.3 million as Research Grants, Dissertation Year Fellowships, Scholars’ Awards and for the biennial Harry S. Truman Book Award.
Together, these grants aid emerging and established scholars whose contributions deepen our understanding of President Truman, his presidency, and the world defining conflicts, decisions and policies that shaped not only his era but also our world today.
RESEARCH GRANTS
Research Grants of up to $2,500 are awarded twice annually to offset the cost of conducting research at the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum. Funding is calculated on the following basis: 1) $175 for any night spent in the Greater Kansas City, Missouri area to cover lodging and meals; and 2) airfare based on the best advance-coach fare available or current IRS mileage rate for those driving personal vehicles.
The spring round of Research Grants includes one John K. Hulston Scholarship of $2,500, to be awarded to a researcher who wishes to visit multiple research facilities— including the Truman Library—for their topic. Applicants should indicate their interest in the Hulston Scholarship when submitting their Research Grant applications and include a detailed project budget outlining additional repositories to be consulted and how materials at those repositories fit into the larger project.
APPLICATION DEADLINES
RESEARCH GRANTS:
October 1, 2024 and April 1, 2025
JOHN K. HULSTON SCHOLARSHIP:
April 1, 2025
APPLICATION PACKAGE
Competitive proposals will evidence a clear understanding of the existing research in the field and how the proposed work adds significantly to that body of literature. Applicants are expected to demonstrate both an analytical and descriptive grasp of the project and its centrality to the Truman era. Application packages must include the following:
• A list of specific collections and b ox numbers the candidate expects to access at the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum
• Two letters of reference from persons familiar with the applicant’s scholarly work. Letters must be received by the deadline and mailed or emailed directly to the Grants Administrator by the referring individual.
• A detailed project budget outlining additional repositories to be consulted and how materials at those repositories fit into the larger project (John K. Hulston Scholarship only)
RECENT RECIPIENTS
• Michael Byrne, University College London, UK: How HST Emerged from Under the Shadow of FDR to Become an Important and Consequential President in His Own Right
• Tyler Goldberger, William & Mary University: These Memories Cannot be Wiped: Remembering, Forgetting, and Silencing the Spanish Civil War and Franco’s Dictatorship in the US, 1937-1962
• Elisabeth Piller, University of Freiburg, Germany: US Humanitarians, Postwar Europe and the Making of the American Century, 1940-1949
• Tuba Unlu Bilgic, Virginia Tech University: Cold War White House and Turkey
• Zejun Wang, East China Normal Unv & Wilson Center Visiting Scholar: Coca-Cola’s Legacy: Commodities, Technology, and Ideology in the Chinese Food Industry in the 20th Century
TrumanLibraryInstitute.org/research-grants
DISSERTATION YEAR FELLOWSHIPS
Dissertation Year Fellowships are intended to encourage historical scholarship of the public career of Harry S. Truman or the Truman era. This fellowship is intended to free a doctoral student from teaching or other employment to facilitate completion of his or her dissertation. Preference will be given to projects based on extensive research at the Truman Library, but since the research is presumed to be complete, there is no requirement of residence at the Library during the fellowship year.
A maximum of two $20,000 grants are given annually; awards are payable to the student in two installments, September and January. Completed applications should be submitted to the Committee no later than February 1. The Committee’s funding decision will be announced no later than the first week of April. The Committee reserves the right to withhold the making of any award if the quality of the applications does not justify it.
APPLICATION DEADLINE
February 1, 2025
APPLICATION PACKAGE
•Completed Dissertation Year Fellowship Application
•Curriculum vitae
• Dissertation prospectus or introduction which explains the project’s significance within the larger historiographical context (10 pages maximum; double spaced, 12-point font)
•Project schedule with completion date
• A policy statement from the dean or department chair stating (in the event an award is made) the university’s intent to not deduct student fees, tuition and health insurance premiums from the Truman Library Institute’s $20,000 fellowship but ensure, nonetheless, that they are provided to the award winner.
• Two letters of reference from persons familiar with the applicant’s doctoral work (one must be from the candidate’s dissertation advisor). Letters must be received by the deadline and mailed or emailed directly to the Grants Administrator by the referring individual.
RECENT RECIPIENTS
• Emily Riley, Princeton University: From Relief to Reconstruction to Development: Defining and Implementing Aid in Post-war Italy
• Ben Zdencanovic, Yale University: From Cradle to Grave: Visions of the Welfare State in an Age of U.S. Global Power, 1941-1952
• Anna Holdorf, University of Notre Dame: A Harvest for Heaven and Earth: Religion, Agriculture, and Development in the Americas from 1900 to 1990
• Dexter Fergie, Northwestern University, Headquartering the World: American Power and the Space of Global Governance, 1945-1980
• Ian Seavey, Texas A&M University: Colonial Calamities: The Politics of U.S. Disaster Relief in Puerto Rico, 1898-1979
TrumanLibraryInstitute.org/research-grants
SCHOLAR’S AWARD
Grants of $30,000 are made to established post-doctoral scholars engaged in work on some aspect of the life and career of Harry S. Truman or of the public and foreign policy issues which were prominent during the Truman years. The award is intended to free a senior scholar from teaching or other employment for a substantial period of time. The awarding of the Scholar’s Award is contingent upon the receipt of underwriting support and of strong proposals from applicants.
If, in the opinion of the Institute’s Committee on Research, Scholarship and Education, the quality of available applications does not justify the making of an award in any given year, none will be made. When possible, the Institute intends to award a Scholar’s Award every other year, in even-numbered years. The Scholar’s Award will be payable in two $15,000 installments, July and January.
Acceptance of the award constitutes a commitment to:
1. Provide the Institute with a copy of the book and/or other published work written or substantially prepared during the grant period.
2. A statement of ab out 1,500 words which describes the awardee’s thesis and its place in the historiography of the Truman era, and the contribution toward its development made by research conducted at the Truman Library. The awardee would give the Institute the right to publish the statement if it chooses to do so.
APPLICATION DEADLINE AWARD ANNOUNCED
December 15, 2025 On or before March 31, 2026
ELIGIBILITY
An applicant’s work should be based in part on extensive research at the Truman Library and be intended to result in the publication of a book-length manuscript. An individual may receive a Scholar’s Award only once.
APPLICATION PROCESS & DEADLINES
PHASE ONE
•Completed Scholar’s Award application
•Curriculum vitae
• Project description and status, not to exceed six double-spaced pages in length with 12-point font, which explains the project’s significance within the larger historiographical context
•One-page bibliography
• Two letters of reference from persons familiar with the applicant’s scholarly work; letters may be mailed or emailed directly to the Grants Administrator by the referring individual.
PHASE TWO
Applicants selected to advance to the second phase of the awarding process will be contacted by February 15 and asked to submit the following:
• A description of Truman Library materials that an applicant has already examined and those that he or she intends to examine
•A projected timeline for project completion
Applicants will be notified of the Committee’s final decision in writing by March 31.
NOTE: The two letters of recommendation must arrive by the December 15 deadline.
RECENT RECIPIENTS
• Thomas W. Zeiler, University of Colorado Boulder: Capitalist Peace Theory in the Truman Era
• Anne Karalekas, Harvard Unviersity, Kennedy School: The Indispensable Partner: Robert A. Lovett, Architect of Post-war America
• Nathan Citino, Rice University: The Forever Empire: The Foundations and Logevity of American Power in the Middle East
• Ian Ona Johnson, University of Notre Dame: Armies of Peace: The United Nations, NATO, and the Korean War
LEARN MORE & APPLY
TrumanLibraryInstitute.org/research-grants
HARRY S. TRUMAN BOOK AWARD
The Harry S. Truman Book Award is presented biennially by the Truman Library Institute. Established in 1963, the Harry S. Truman Book Award recognizes the best book published within a two-year period dealing primarily and substantially with some aspect of the history of the United States between April 12, 1945 and January 20, 1953, or with the life or career of Harry S. Truman.
NOW ACCEPTING SUBMISSIONS
Books written about Harry S. Truman or the period of his presidency and published between January 1, 2024 and December 31, 2025 are eligible for the 2026 Harry S. Truman Book Award.
SUBMISSION DEADLINE
January 20, 2026
Contact: Lisa Sullivan, Lisa.Sullivan@TrumanLibraryInstitute.org or 816.400.1216
RECENT TRUMAN BOOK AWARD WINNERS
2024 The Watchdog: How the Truman Committee Battled Corruption and Helped Win World War Two by Steve Drummond
2022 Between Containment and Rollback: The United States and the Cold War in Germany by Christian F. Ostermann
2020 Grand Improvisation: America Confronts the British Superpower, 1945-1957 by Derek Leebaert
2018 A Force So Swift: Mao, Truman, and the Birth of Modern China, 1949 by Kevin Peraino
2016 Potsdam: The End of World War II and the Remaking of Europe by Michael Neiberg
2014 Henry Wallace’s 1948 Presidential Campaign and the Future of Postwar Liberalism by Thomas W. Devine
2012 The War for Korea, 1950-1951: They Came from the North by Allan R. Millett
OUR VISION People are inspired, enriched and empowered through the many resources of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum.
OUR MISSION To bring the life and legacy of Harry S. Truman to bear on current and future generations through the understanding of history, the presidency, domestic and foreign policy, and citizenship.
