Graduate student Eric Papenfuse is intimately acquainted with the holdings of the Yale Library. He has used materials from the University's collections in the undergraduate seminars that he teaches; he drew upon those archives when writing his new book; and he tapped still other Yale sources to write the article that recently won him the 1997 James Madison Prize of the Society for History in the Federal Government.
Mr. Papenfuse, who graduated from Yale College in 1993, is the youngest scholar ever to win the award, which recognizes the best published article on any aspect of U.S. government history from the nation's founding to the present day. His article, "Unleashing the 'Wildness': The Mobilization of Grassroots Antifederalism in Maryland," appeared in the Journal of the Early Republic last spring.
The prize winning article was originally an undergraduate essay advised by Barbara Oberg, editor-in-chief of the "Papers of Benjamin Franklin." In accepting the Madison Prize at a ceremonial luncheon on April 4 in the new National Archives Building in Washington, D.C., Mr. Papenfuse talked about the importance of preserving federal funding for projects like the Franklin Papers, as well as the benefits of using primary source materials in the classroom.
"As a teaching fellow within the Yale history department," noted Mr. Papenfuse, "I have had extraordinary opportunities to present and discuss unique manuscripts and rare newspapers, many of which formed the basis of my article."
In addition to winning the Madison Prize, the historian is also the youngest author to have his work included in the American Philosophical Society's "Transactions" book series, the nation's oldest such scholarly publication.
The inspiration for Mr. Papenfuse's new book, "The Evils of Necessity: Robert Goodloe Harper and the Moral Dilemma of Slavery," also came during his undergraduate years. His study of Harper -- which draws extensively on unpublished documentary collections in the Yale Library's manuscripts and archives department and the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library -- was "originally submitted to satisfy the requirements of the senior essay," explains Mr. Papenfuse.
Although avid about his own research interests, "most essentially I consider myself a teacher," says Mr. Papenfuse. "My many inspiring advisers in the Yale history department have taught me that being a helpful and caring instructor is not at all incompatible with being a productive scholar. Indeed, it is difficult to conceive of the two as not being necessarily intertwined."
Mr. Papenfuse will be speaking on the issues of race and slavery in Early America and signing copies of his Harper biography on Sunday, April 20, at 2 p.m. in the Yale Co-op bookstore, 77 Broadway. All are invited to attend.