ONE SUMMER LASTS A LIFETIME
A Campaign to Endow Historic Deerfield’s
Summer Fellowship Program in History and Material Culture
This GivingTuesday — December 2, 2025
Your Gift to Endow the Summer Fellowship Program Will Be Doubled!
Make your gift on Giving Tuesday and it will be matched dollar-for-dollar—up to $10,000—thanks to a generous matching challenge. Your support today helps open the door for future Summer Fellows and ensures this transformational program continues to thrive.
What is the Summer Fellowship Program?
Historic Deerfield’s Summer Fellowship Program is a nine-week immersive learning experience for undergraduate students from across the country. Fellows live in the village, work hands-on with museum collections, conduct original research, and explore the history and material culture of early New England.
For nearly 70 years, this program has shaped future scholars, museum professionals, teachers, and public historians. Alumni consistently describe the Fellowship as life-changing—a turning point in how they understand history, objects, community, and their own career paths.
Your Support Today:
- Doubles in impact thanks to the $10,000 Giving Tuesday match
- Supports innovative, hands-on learning opportunities
- Helps us welcome a diverse group of emerging scholars
- Ensures the future of the program that has shaped generations of leaders in and outside of the museum field
Join Us This Giving Tuesday
Giving Tuesday is the largest philanthropic day of the year—a moment when people around the world come together to support the causes they care about most. Your Giving Tuesday gift today will help sustain a program that has inspired generations of scholars and leaders for nearly seven decades. Make your matched gift and support tomorrow’s leaders!
Greg Gross, Summer Fellow 1983:
Immersed for nine weeks among the artifacts of early New England, I discovered that every object—whether a fence post or a turret-top tea table—embodies human intention and story. That way of seeing meaning in material things has guided my work and worldview ever since—living proof that the Summer Fellowship shapes not just careers, but minds.
Elizabeth Sacktor, Summer Fellow 2024:
The Summer Fellowship Program changed the way I think about material culture, public history, and memory. The knowledge I gained has been invaluable in my work in the museums field since. The friendships and connections I made continue to open doors.
Questions? Contact us today!
Jesse Vanek, VP of Development and Communications, at jvanek@historic-deerfield.org or (413) 775-7177
Jessica Schofield, Associate Director of Development, at jschofield@historic-deerfield.