– $345,639 Grant Will Support Student Research Opportunities and Internships in Digital History –
St. Thomas Aquinas College has been awarded a $345,639 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to expand the work of the Loyalist Studies Institute relating to the study of Loyalists in the American Revolution, marking a significant milestone in the College’s growing role in faculty scholarship, undergraduate research, and digital humanities.
Awarded through a nationally competitive process, the grant will support the next phase of an initiative that preserves and expands access to Revolutionary War records while providing students with opportunities to participate in direct, faculty-led digital history with national significance.
“Receiving this National Endowment for the Humanities award is an extraordinary achievement for St. Thomas Aquinas College,” said Ken Daly, President of St. Thomas Aquinas College. “It reflects the exceptional scholarship of our faculty and our commitment to providing students with experiential learning academic research opportunities. Our students will work alongside faculty as partners in the research process — contributing to original scholarship while gaining experiences that distinguish a St. Thomas Aquinas education.”
The award builds on the Institute, established in 2024 through a $229,624 grant from The Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation. That investment enabled the College to establish a digital research platform, engage undergraduate researchers in archival scholarship, and launch a growing public archive documenting New York’s Loyalist history. The new NEH grant advances that work through Loyalist Soldiers in Revolutionary America: Documenting De Lancey’s Brigade and the Loyal American Regiment, 1776–1780.
Funded through the NEH’s Rediscovering Our Revolutionary Tradition initiative, the project comes as the nation commemorates the 250th anniversary of American independence. The initiative will recover, preserve, and make publicly accessible thousands of military records documenting British American Loyalists who served in two of New York’s significant provincial regiments during the Revolutionary War.
Building upon the Institute’s existing database of more than 11,000 documented Loyalists, researchers will connect military records with biographical information, geographic data, and historical context to create a comprehensive, searchable public resource. Interactive exhibits, historical visualizations, datasets, and educational resources will further expand access to these often-overlooked perspectives on the American Revolution.
“As the nation commemorates the 250th anniversary of American independence, this project gives us an opportunity to broaden the story we tell about the Revolution,” said Dr. Heath Bowen, Dean of the School of Arts & Social Sciences at St. Thomas Aquinas College and Director of the Loyalist Institute. “By bringing together records that have historically been difficult to access, we can better understand the individuals, communities, and experiences that shaped Revolutionary-era New York. Just as importantly, our students will be directly involved in researching, interpreting, and writing history through fellowship opportunities.”
Central to the initiative is the active involvement of undergraduate researchers. Working alongside faculty and nationally recognized historians, students will gain firsthand experience in archival research, documentary editing, digital humanities, data curation, and historical interpretation while contributing directly to publicly accessible scholarly resources.
Through the NEH-funded project, the Loyalist Institute will expand its national reach and deepen understanding of the complex experiences that shaped Revolutionary America — ensuring that important historical records and perspectives are preserved, explored, and shared with generations to come.
About St. Thomas Aquinas College
St. Thomas Aquinas College is an independent liberal arts college located on 76 acres in Rockland County, NY, providing education at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The College’s diverse student body of approximately 2,000 full and part-time students can choose from over 100 majors, minors, and specializations across four Schools: Arts & Social Sciences, Business, Education, and STEM. The College is recognized by U.S. News & World Report in the Top-Tier for Regional Universities, and by Colleges of Distinction in its New York edition for Business, Education, and Career Development. The College is also recognized as a Yellow Ribbon Program institution. St. Thomas Aquinas College is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools; its School of Education is accredited by the Association for Advancing Quality in Educator Preparation (AAQEP), and its School of Business is accredited by the International Accreditation Council for Business Education (IACBE). For more information, visit www.stac.edu.
Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this press release do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.