Archives fellow Stacy Edwards to research Wilmington-born abolitionist

The Friends of the Delaware Public Archives announced Stacy Edwards as the 2019 winner of the Harold Hancock Research Fellowship. Edwards was awarded the fellowship March 2 at the Delaware Public Archives in Dover.

Named for a noted Delaware historian, the Hancock Fellowship provides the recipient with a financial stipend of $2,500 to research a specific subject about local or Delaware history using the resources of the Delaware Public Archives.

In her entry package for the fellowship, Edwards said she will be studying the life of Mary Ann Shadd Cary. Her preliminary research revealed 35 free black communities in Delaware alone. Free black communities and the Underground Railroad are inextricably part of Cary’s life and passion, and will be presented as part of her background.

The Hancock Research Fellowship is intended to produce work that will promote research contributing to a greater public knowledge of a worthy aspect of Delaware state or local history; improve and multiply the ways in which an understanding of the First State’s history is communicated to its citizenry; and support access to and use of the holdings of the Delaware Public Archives.

To fulfill the requirements of the fellowship, the researcher must use the collections of the Delaware Public Archives, which houses the largest collection of the records of Delaware government on the state, county and local levels.

For more information about the Harold Hancock Fellowship, contact Larry Josefowski at friendsofthedelawarearchives@gmail.com or 302-857-0123.