FSU history scholar receives national humanities award to aid Benjamin Franklin research
A 糖心vlog early American history researcher has received an award from the National Endowment for the Humanities for his groundbreaking work on the monetary policy impact of one of the nation鈥檚 founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin.
Professor of history Edward Gray has been named a recipient of the National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholars Award, which will provide $30,000 in support of research for a book titled 鈥淏enjamin Franklin鈥檚 Money: A Financial Life of the First American.鈥 This award comes on the heels of the American Philosophical Society-NEH Sabbatical Fellowship Gray received last spring to support his work on the book.
Both honors will provide Gray with time and funding to complete the book, which seeks to give scholars and general-interest readers alike insight into Franklin鈥檚 attitudes and relationship with money and finance and how these impacted monetary policy in early America.
鈥淚 feel incredibly fortunate. The fellowship allows time away from my routine faculty duties to focus on my research,鈥 Gray said. 鈥淚 hope to have a completed draft of the book by the end of the fellowship period in December 2023.鈥
The National Endowment for the Humanities is a major funder of humanities programs in the U.S., and the organization awards grants to strengthen teaching and learning, preserve history, and facilitate research. Gray鈥檚 Public Scholars Award is supported in part by the NEH鈥檚 鈥淎 More Perfect Union鈥 initiative, a multi-year effort to highlight the importance of the field of humanities to the United States and commemorate our nation鈥檚 history ahead of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 2026.
Franklin was an innovator in U.S. currency politics and made efforts to reorganize the monetary environment of early America, which lacked a centralized, sovereign currency. Franklin promoted the use of printed paper money, an unpopular opinion at a time where most were accustomed to using coins as currency.
Gray鈥檚 research will expand on the body of knowledge surrounding monetary policy in early America and show how that history shaped our use of currency today. He expects his work to resonate with present-day Americans, as they confront the challenges of fiscal and monetary politics.
鈥淭his would be like promoting cryptocurrency today 鈥 a lot of people rolled their eyes and were skeptical that this is some new-fangled nonsense, and we need to nip it in the bud because it鈥檚 going to cause all kinds of problems,鈥 Gray said. 鈥淭his is the part about Franklin I want my project to illuminate 鈥 the world of money he inhabited was very different than the one we inhabit, and he was deeply enmeshed in that world in ways that aren鈥檛 all that familiar to people.鈥
The APS-NEH Sabbatical Fellowship allows Gray to work on his book at the APS Library in Philadelphia, the city where Franklin himself founded the American Philosophical Society, and one of the world鈥檚 foremost repositories of material on the founding father.
The fellowship and Public Scholars Award provide Gray with more than incredible resources; however, they are also distinct honors recognizing his nearly 30 years of work in the field.
鈥淚t is a career milestone,鈥 said Gray, who has been a faculty member with the since 1998. 鈥淔or humanities scholars, there are a limited number of external grants of this kind and they tend to be spectacularly competitive. This year鈥檚 NEH Public Scholar competition had a roughly 8 percent selection rate. The recognition means an awful lot to me.鈥
The award also reflects the quality of scholarship in FSU鈥檚 history department as well as Gray鈥檚 scholarly tenacity in continuing to advance his research while serving for nearly a decade as the department鈥檚 chair, said incoming history chair Jennifer Koslow.
Gray鈥檚 award is among $31.5 million in recently announced NEH funding for various humanities projects across the U.S. To view the complete list of projects and awards, visit .