Cleveland Philanthropy Fellows and Interns

Nick is the primary researcher for two early 20th-century travel journals. Jeptha H. Wade II began an automobile trip to Germany in August 1914  and the family's experiences coincided with the beginning of the First World War. The second journal focuses on the travels of a younger Wade family member, 15-year-old Ellen Wade, as she travels abroad for the first time in 1925.  Using the initial transcriptions as a starting point, Nick researches and edits content to ensure the accuracy of transcriptions, and proofreads content before submission to ensure the accuracy of facts, grammar, spelling, and punctuation, annotating existing manuscripts for clarity, providing contextual information for the modern reader. Nick also researches the family history in New York City, though primarily Clevelanders, Jeptha H. Wade (1811-1890) was the third president of Western Union in 1855 and resided in the City, while his grandson Jeptha H. Wade II (1857-1926) visited the city several times a year on collecting trips. Nick was also a Cleveland Philanthropy research assistant in 2020. Nick earned his M.A. in Philosophy from Columbia in May 2023, and is currently located in New York City.

Rebecca received her MA in Art History and Museum Studies from CWRU in May 2020. Over the course of her initial fellowship, Rebecca transcribed and annotated three of Jeptha Homer Wade II’s travel journals which recounted his 1891–92 trip across Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and Scandinavia. Rebecca identified photos of individuals, landmarks, and events contemporaneous to Wade’s trip, as well as creating a map that pinpoints the Wade family’s route. Rebecca transcribed, mapped, and annotated a total of six travel journals kept by Jeptha Homer Wade II and Ellen Howe Garretson on their 1891–92 trip across Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and Scandinavia. She conducted research on the Wade family, and researched landscape architect, Warren Manning, in preparation for ongoing preservation work at Millpond Plantation. During the summers of 2021 and 2022 Rebecca supervised the research assistants and oversaw the completion of their projects, and in her final year as Cleveland Philanthropy Research Fellow, Rebecca provided context for the lives of Kelvin and Eleanor Smith to aid Brad Stirn in his project. Rebecca is currently the Curator of History for Historic Columbia.

Elizabeth Glander graduated from Walsh University in May 2022 after retiring from a nine-year career as a professional ballet dancer. At Walsh University, Elizabeth majored in Museum Studies and minored in Chemistry, Art History, and Art.  The summer of 2022 was Glander’s second summer as a Cleveland Philanthropy research assistant. In 2021 she was instrumental in fact-checking and updating citations for the Wade manuscript. She conducted original research on topics including Randall Wade’s departure from Abraham Lincoln’s war department during the Civil War, yacht construction in the 19th century, and specifically on J.H. Wade II’s yacht, the Wadena in 1891. Elizabeth’s 2022 project has been the annotation and contextualization of the Wade family’s trip to Russia and Central Europe in 1896. Elizabeth is an incoming first-year conservation student Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation.

Morgan graduated cum laude from CWRU in 2021, earning her BA in Art History and History, and entered the CWRU M.A. in Art History and Museum Studies in August 2021. The following summer, Morgan reviewed and edited the transcription of Sarah Gaylord Newberry’s 1849–50 travel journal. She also created a glossary containing nearly two-hundred entries which provide context for the significant people, places, technology, works of art, and material culture that Gaylord Newberry encountered in France and Italy. Morgan also sourced public domain images that illustrate Gaylord Newberry’s descriptions and observations and worked with staff at the Western Reserve Historical Society’s Research Library to conduct genealogical research on Gaylord Newberry and her husband. She earned her M.A. in 2023 and is currently Exhibition Project Manager at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Laurén Kozlowski received an MA in Art History and Museum Studies from CWRU in May 2022. Over the course of her eight-week research position, Laurén proofread the transcription of Sarah Gaylord Newberry’s 290-page travel journal, generated and formatted nearly one-hundred citations, and sourced numerous public domain photos of significant sites and works of art that Gaylord Newberry saw throughout her time in Europe. She earned an MLIS from Kent State University with a focus on digital preservation and is currently a Librarian for the Romeo District Library in Washington, Michigan.

Samantha (“Samie”) Konet earned a BFA in Drawing and Printmaking from Cleveland Institute of Art. From July to September 2016, Samie reviewed the transcription of J.H. Wade II’s travel journals from 1891–92, reformatted the layout of the more than 365 entries, mapped the last three months of the journey, and created a master image list for the project. She also reformatted the combined the transcriptions of Eleanor Armstrong Smith’s sophomore and junior year letters and organized selections by semester and month. Samie graduated from the Pratt Institute with her MLIS in May 2024 and has accepted a position as Dance Audio and Moving Image Cataloger at The New York Public Library.

Between June and August 2021, Julie proofread the two-hundred-page transcription of Eleanor Armstrong’s daily letters to her future husband, Kelvin Smith, and researched the cultural and historical events, material culture, and individuals Eleanor encountered throughout her sophomore and junior year at Smith College. Julie also generated and reformatted over one-hundred citations and sourced images from Eleanor’s summer vacation in 1920.  After graduating with an M.A. in Art History and Museum Studies in May 2022, Julie Polsinelli joined Valley Art Center in Chagrin Falls, Ohio as the deputy director.

Dominique DeLuca earned her doctorate in Medieval Art from CWRU in 2020.  During her fellowship, Dominique traced the origins and status of lace collections within American museums as part of a larger research project that looks at the history of lace collections in North American museums.  Dominique compared the collecting practices of the Cleveland Museum of Art with those of eleven similar institutions. Dominique is currently a lecturer in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Vermont, in Burlington, Vermont..

​Kylie Fisher is a specialist in early modern European print history and culture who earned her doctorate from CWRU in May 2020.  During her fellowship, Kylie conducted art historical and object-based research to create a story map tracing notable purchases that Jeptha Homer Wade II mentioned in his 1894–95 travel journals and highlighting works of art now housed by the Cleveland Museum of Art. Kylie is currently Assistant Professor of Art History at Furman University, in Greenville, South Carolina.

​Amalia Donastorg graduated from CWRU in May 2019 with majors in Art History, Chemistry, and Biology. After a summer spent as a Cleveland Philanthropy Fellow, Donastorg was awarded a paid, pre- program conservation internship at the Cleveland Museum of Art in paper conservation lab. During her eight-week internship with Cleveland Philanthropy, Amalia was introduced to transcription and research practices for 19th century history. She transcribed two volumes of the travel journals from a round-the-world tour taken by Jeptha H. Wade II (1847–1926) and his family in 1894–95. Amalia is currently a student at NYU’s The Institute of Arts Conservation Center where she is earning an M.A. in Paintings Conservation.