The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Main Library and the Department of History awards a research grant to scholars at the graduate and post-doctoral levels who wish to conduct research at the University of Illinois Library.

This scholarship is an incentive for the development of local and global research that has some kind of relationship with the history of Illinois, or that requires consulting and working on archives and all kinds of library resources.

The University Library is one of the largest research libraries in the U.S., holding more than 14 million volumes and 24 million other items and materials in all formats, languages, and subjects. 

Its History, Philosophy and Newspaper Library in particular contains a valuable digital record of 19th century newspapers and other publications which, along with a few other publications in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library, have been significantly helpful in carrying out this research.