Awards & Grants

The Lewis L. Gould Award

The Lewis L. Gould Award is presented to a member of FLARE who has, in the course of his or her other noteworthy career, made distinguished contributions to the field of first lady research and education. Nominees should demonstrate Dr. Gould’s unwavering commitment to excellence while encouraging and furthering the study of American first ladies. FLARE will announce on the website and via email to members when nominations are open and what is required for a nomination. Only members can nominate or be nominated. An awards committee composed of FLARE members determines recipients.

All members of FLARE are eligible for nomination except for those serving on the Gould Award Committee. A Gould Award nominee should have a long and distinguished career that includes significant contributions to scholarship and education about first ladies.

Nomination letters should persuasively address how the applicant meets the following criteria:

• The quality, academic rigor, and influence of the nominee’s scholarship and publications
• The impact of the nominee’s public communication and educational activities
• The nominee’s fostering of additional knowledge about first ladies through teaching, institutional, or public service (broadly construed)
• The influence and creativity of the nominee’s work or educational activities on other scholars, researchers, and/or the public.

Because nominees' disciplinary specialization and focus may vary widely, the Gould Award Committee recognizes that not all criteria will be relevant in every case.

Past Lewis L. Gould Award Recipients

• 2025 - Holly C. Shulman, Ph.D.
• 2024 - Allida Black
• 2023 - Catherine Allgor
• 2022 - Anita D. McBride
• 2021 - Lewis L. Gould

Lewis L. Gould Archives Grant

This competitive award is available to non-profit archives to make lesser-known sources related to U.S. First Ladies more widely available to researchers and the public, ideally by processing, digitizing, transcribing, exhibiting, and publicizing all or part of a collection related to the lives and legacies of First Ladies. The goal of the Gould Archives Grant is to help archives spotlight primary source materials valuable to the study of First Ladies that have been heretofore overlooked or relatively unknown, in an effort to encourage their use. This is consistent with the mission of FLARE: to create and sustain a network to promote and publicize research and education about the contributions, lives, impact, and lasting legacy of U.S. First Ladies

In addition to digitizing documents, further uses of the Gould Archives Grant could include, for example, the creation and publicizing of:

• transcriptions of the correspondence of First Ladies;
• an annotated, online finding aid;
• a webpage or website with information about the archival collection/documents, and/or
• an online exhibit that centers on the documents.

As long as such expenditures result in drawing attention to documents connected directly to First Ladies, the Gould Archives Grant therefore supports:

• the purchase or upgrade of necessary archival supplies and/or equipment essential to project goals;
• a stipend for an intern or current staff member directly related to project activities;
• the creation of a catalog or finding aid;
• transcription services;
• costs associated with creating an online exhibit;
• publicizing the existence of lesser-known documents or collections.

Further Gould Archives Grant Application Information

• Grants of up to $600. No matching funds are required.
• Priority will be given to archives that can make available lesser-known or lesser-utilized collections to a wide audience of scholars and the public. 
• Applicants must clearly identify and connect their project to the stated goals of the Gould Grant.
• All applications must be submitted online.
• The grant application requires:
• a project summary of no more than 1,500 words, including a statement of the project’s connection to the study of First Ladies, its significance, and a description of the collection(s) to be utilized;
• a budget; and
• a work plan, including methodology and a timeline; and
• a final report to FLARE no later than one year after the grant has been awarded.

Eligibility Criteria
Eligible applicants must be non-profit archival repositories whose collections are open to the public.

The FLARE Gould Grant committee is tasked with reviewing all applications, making a final decision, and notifying both the successful and unsuccessful applicant(s).

About Lewis L. Gould
Historian Lewis L. Gould founded the modern scholarly study of First Ladies. He is the Eugene C. Barker Centennial Professor Emeritus in American History at the University of Texas at Austin, where, in the fall of 1982, he taught the first course on First Ladies. The author or editor of more than twenty books, Gould’s commitment to archival research is legendary in the field. It undergirds the books in the “Modern First Ladies” series he began in 1998, including his three books for the series, Lady Bird Johnson: Our Environmental First Lady (1999), Helen Taft: Our Musical First Lady (2010), and Edith Kermit Roosevelt: Creating the Modern First Lady (2012). Gould is an inaugural lifetime founding member of FLARE, and the namesake and first winner of FLARE’s annual Gould Award for those making distinguished contributions to the field of First Lady research and education.

Research and Education Grants

FLARE plans to award research grants to prepare an article or book for publication or to develop an educational program or course. Details will be posted on the website and emailed to members when award applications open. Only members are eligible for grant awards. Grantees are selected by a grants committee composed of members.