Kluge Center Convenes UK Anniversary Events, Visits

Kluge Center staff held events and peer visits in the United Kingdom during the last week of May 2025, commemorating the Kluge Center’s 25^th anniversary as well as the 20^th anniversary of partnering with UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) to bring scholars to the Library of Congress.

Kluge Center staff met with officials from several institutions supporting scholarly work, with the intention of building relationships and sharing best practices. These institutions included the British Library, the British Museum, the Rothermere American Institute, the Bodleian Library, the Warburg Institute, the Institute for Government, and the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Many of these offer similar fellowship programs to those offered by the Kluge Center, and staff returned with new ideas for applying their successes to the Kluge Center.

On May 29, in Cambridge, England, the Kluge Center hosted a forum discussion titled “The Role of Libraries and Research Centers in the 21^st Century,” with Mark Purcell, Director for Research and Collections at the Cambridge University Library, Mercedes Aguirre, Lead Curator of the Americas collections at the British Library, and Kluge Center Director Kevin Butterfield, for an audience of alumni and partners.

Staff also participated in a conference hosted by incoming Kluge Chair in American Law and Governance and Paul Mellon Professor of American History Emeritus at the University of Cambridge, Gary Gerstle.

The Kluge Center was founded in the year 2000 with a generous endowment from philanthropist John W. Kluge. Since then, the Kluge Center has hosted well over 1,000 scholars in residence who have conducted research using the collections of the Library of Congress.

Since 2005, the Kluge Center and UKRI have been partners in the International Placement Scheme, allowing doctoral students funded by the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council/Economic Social Research Council in the UK to come to the Library of Congress as research fellows. While in residence, fellows conduct original research using the Library’s collections with study space at the Kluge Center. These fellows are expected to present a work-in-progress talk to staff and other scholars while in residence, inviting discussion and feedback on their projects.

Over the lifetime of this program, more than 400 fellows have conducted research at the Kluge Center.

These events provided staff an opportunity to learn from alumni about the Kluge Center’s place in the international landscape of humanities funding, as well as about successes and failures in fostering community among scholars who have passed through the center. Staff were pleased to find that a great deal of connection exists between UK alumni of Kluge Center programs, and that they are eager to build stronger bonds to each other as well as to the Kluge Center and the Library of Congress.