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EARLY AMERICAN INDUSTRIES GROUP WILL OFFER RESEARCH GRANTS

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WILMINGTON, DEL. — For the year 2008 the directors of the Early American Industries Association (EAIA) have announced a $6,000 Research Grants Program to provide grants to individuals or institutions engaged in research projects that relate to the study and better understanding of early American industries in the home, in the shop, on the farm or on the sea.

The numbers and amount of each grant is to be given at the discretion of the committee, with no one grant to exceed $2,000.

The purpose of the EAIA’s Research Grants Program is to assist individuals, graduate students and scholars with research leading to publications, exhibitions or audio-visual materials. These grants are not tuition, scholarship or internship funds.

Grants for 2007 included projects on adding English patents to a database for patents related to horse-drawn vehicles; focused on the Brewster Carriage Dynasty, a company that went from a traditional handcraft one to a major American industry; better understanding the makers and users of log calipers and log rules in New England from 1840 to the present; and how miners and merchants using various tools and processes extracted lead ore that connected this frontier natural resource to the industrial revolution in the period between 1790 and 1848.

The EAIA, as an international collectors’ organization, encourages the study and better understanding of early American industries in the home, in the shop, on the farm and on the sea. Its members discover, identify, classify, preserve and exhibit obsolete tools, implements and mechanical devices that were used in early America up to 1900.

For applications or further information about the Research Grants Program, contact Justine Mataleno, 1324 Shallcross Avenue, Wilmington DE 19806 (302-652-7297).

The application deadline for 2008 is March 15. For further information about the EAIA, contact Elton W. Hall, executive director, 167 Bakerville Road, South Dartmouth MA 02748.