Two hundred and seventy-five scholars and artists were awarded Guggenheim Fellowships in 1956. More than $1,100,000 was disbursed and the number of fellows was the highest in the fellowship's history up to that date.
1956 U.S. and Canadian Fellows
Category Field of Study Fellow Institutional association Research topic Notes Ref Creative Arts Drama and Performance Art Harry Miles Muheim New York University Writing a musical Fine Arts Roger William Anliker Carnegie Tech Painting Ralph Wilfred Borge California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland Technical Adult School John Hultberg Ben Kamihira Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia Museum of Art Also won in 1955 Roger Edward Kuntz Scripps College, Claremont Graduate School Exploration of a middle ground between objective and nonobjective paintings George L. Mueller Painting Robert Sterling Neuman State University of New York Survey of contemporary Spanish paintings Stanley Twardowicz Hofstra University Painting Andre Racz Columbia University Printmaking Fiction David Karp Novel writing Thomas Hal Phillips Also won in 1953 Frank Rooney David R. Wagoner University of Washington Donald Wetzel The Rain and the Fire and the Will of God (published 1957) Music Composition Theodore Ward Chanler Harvard University Composing Also won in 1944 Carlos Chávez Also won in 1938 Carlisle Floyd University of Houston Edmund Thomas Haines Also won in 1957 Earl Kim Princeton University Ezra Laderman Yale School of Music Chamber concerto collaboration with Jean Erdman Also won in 1958, 1964 Bohuslav Martinů Mannes School of Music Composing Also won in 1953 Jan Meyerowitz Also won in 1958 Julia Amanda Perry Also won in 1954 George Rochberg University of Pennsylvania, Theodore Presser Also won in 1966 Seymour J. Shifrin University of California, Berkeley Also won in 1959 Vladimir Alexis Ussachevsky Columbia University Also won in 1960 Richard Kenelm Winslow Wesleyan University Photography Robert Frank Hungarian Revolution of 1956 Also won in 1955 William A. Garnett Regional differences in California's geographical features Also won in 1953, 1975 W. Eugene Smith Pittsburgh Also won in 1957, 1968 Todd Webb The Oregon Trail Also won in 1955 Poetry Margaret Kirkland Avison University of Toronto Writing Barbara Gibbs Golffing Bennington College Also won in 1955 Ned O'Gorman Columbia University (MA student) Also won in 1962 Humanities American Literature Vivian Constance Hopkins New York State College for Teachers Influence of Francis Bacon on American thought in the first half of the 19th century Norman Holmes Pearson Yale University Nathaniel Hawthorne's letters Also won in 1948 Elizabeth Shepley Sergeant Thomas Anton Schafer Duke University Jonathan Edwards' Miscellanies as a source for the structure of his political thought James Leslie Woodress, Jr. Butler University Joel Barlow Architecture, Planning and Design Lewis Mumford University of Pennsylvania Development of cities as an aspect of modern civilization Also won in 1932, 1938 Biography Arthur McCandless Wilson Dartmouth College Biographies of Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert Also won in 1939 British History William Haller Barnard College Protestant propaganda during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I and its effects on English nationalism Also won in 1947, 1950 Gustave Lanctot Ottawa University Influence of the American Revolution on the people of Canada Also won in 1957 Wallace T. MacCaffrey Haverford College Development of the merchant class in Bristol, 1500–1640 Also won in 1982 David Spring Johns Hopkins University Charles Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, 5th Earl Fitzwilliam Classics William Ayres Arrowsmith University of California, Riverside Role of the hero in Greek tragedy Christopher Mounsey Dawson Yale University Early Greek lyric poetry and elegy Glanville Downey Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Harvard University History of Antioch on the Orontes Charles Farwell Edson, Jr. University of Wisconsin Ancient history of Macedonia Also won in 1936, 1937 Gordon Macdonald Kirkwood Cornell University History of lyric poetry of Ancient Greece Bernard M. Knox Yale University, Center for Hellenic Studies Development of Sophocles' tragic vision illustrated in three plays Matthew Immanuel Wiencke Dartmouth College Greek sculptural reliefs of the Archaic and Classical periods Leonard Ernest Woodbury University of Toronto Protagoras of Abdera East Asian Studies University of California, Berkeley Thai languages in Burma, especially Shan dialects Richard Burroughs Mather University of Minnesota Buddhist influence in the writings of Chinese intellectuals of the fourth and fifth centuries A.D. John Leon Mish New York Public Library "Literary and scientific activities of the Jesuits in Peking in the 17th and 18th centuries" Nicholas N. Poppe University of Washington Mongolian manuscripts collected by Sir Aurel Stein Economic History David Granick Fisk University Soviet economic development, specifically in the metallurgy industry English Literature Walter Jackson Bate Harvard University John Keats Also won in 1965 Reuben Arthur Brower Harvard University Alexander Pope and poetic tradition Also won in 1965 Kathleen Coburn University of Toronto Samuel Taylor Coleridge's notebooks Also won in 1953 Roland Mushat Frye Emory University Christian life in William Langland, Edmund Spenser, John Milton, and John Bunyan Also won in 1973 Edgar Johnson City College of New York Also won in 1966 Gwin Jackson Kolb University of Chicago Works by Samuel Johnson Kathleen Martha Lynch Mount Holyoke College Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery Frederick Ludwig Mulhauser Pomona College Religion in Victorian England Gordon Norton Ray University of Illinois H. G. Wells Also won in 1941, 1942, 1945 Samuel Schoenbaum Northwestern University Thomas Middleton Also won in 1969 Arthur Sherbo University of Illinois Christopher Smart Linda Van Norden University of California, Davis Literary imagination during the late English Renaissance Aubrey Lake Williams, Jr. Yale University Works of Alexander Pope Fine Arts Research University of Pennsylvania Archaic Greek art University of Louisville Tilman Riemenschneider and other Gothic German sculptors Also won in 1953 P. J. Conkwright, Jr. Princeton University The art of book design Louisa Dresser Worcester Art Museum American paintings before the Revolution Lorenz Eitner University of Minnesota German Romantic painting George Kubler Yale University Architecture of the Spanish and Portuguese empires, 1450–1800 Also won in 1943, 1952 Charles Merrill Mount Claude Monet Richard Offner New York University Leona E. Prasse Cleveland Museum of Art Graphic work of Feininger David M. Robb University of Pennsylvania Manuscript illumination Seymour Slive Harvard University Frans Hals Also won in 1978 Folklore and Popular Culture Marius Barbeau Université Laval Also won in 1954 French Literature Gilbert Chinard Princeton University History of European concepts relating to the USA Also won in 1951 Robert Greer Cohn Vassar College Literary development of several French writers Also won in 1985 William Roach University of Pennsylvania Also won in 1949 General Nonfiction Redding Francis Perry United States Army 2nd Armored Division in World War II George William Potter Providence Journal Catholic Irish in America, 1820–1860 German and East European History Hans Wilhelm Gatzke Johns Hopkins University Gustav Stresemann Oscar Halecki Fordham University Slavic contribution to European culture R. John Rath University of Texas Austrian government in Lombardy-Venetia German and Scandinavian Literature Heinz Bluhm Yale University Significance of Martin Luther for the early history of the printed Bible Raymond M. Immerwahr Washington University in St. Louis Literary and cultural romanticism in German, French, and English literature Harvard University Influence of German literature on the writings of the Generation of '98 Hans M. Wolff University of California, Berkeley Schopenhauer's philosophy History of Science and Technology I. Bernard Cohen Harvard University The development of Isaac Newton's scientific ideas and their influence in the 18th century Charles Mayo Goss Louisiana State University History of medicine in Ancient Greece Iberian and Latin American History Peter Muschamp Boyd-Bowman Kalamazoo College Regional origins of Spanish colonizers in America in the 16th century Linguistics Mark J. Dresden University of Pennsylvania Also won in 1954 Murray B. Emeneau University of California, Berkeley Dravidian linguistics Also won in 1949 Harvard University Italian phonology Paul Serruys Saint Mary's College High School Chinese language of the Han dynasty Max Weinreich City College of New York Also won in 1955 Literary Criticism John Arthos University of Michigan The sublime in the criticism of poetry Herschel Clay Baker Harvard University William Hazlitt Also won in 1963 Wayne Clayson Booth Earlham College Problems of narrative form Also won in 1969 Albert J. Guerard Harvard University Works of Joseph Conrad William Hugh Kenner University of California, Santa Barbara Also won in 1963 Murray Krieger University of Minnesota Also won in 1961 René Wellek Yale University History of modern literary criticism Also won in 1951, 1952, 1966 Medieval History Marvin Burton Becker University of Michigan, Baldwin-Wallace College History of representative government in Florence in the fourteenth century Peter Charanis Rutgers University Social structure of the Byzantine Empire" Tryggvi Julius Oleson University of Manitoba Edward the Confessor Cornell University Book trade in medieval Italy John Joseph Ryan, Jr. St. John's Seminary, Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies Gregorian Reform Brian Tierney Catholic University of America Ecclesiastical law concerning the relief of poverty in the Middle Ages Also won in 1955 William L. Winter Teachers College of Connecticut Development of the Hanseatic League as an example of European supranational organization Medieval Literature Cornell University Medieval rhetoric Also won in 1928 Margaret W. Pepperdene Miami University Christian elements in Beowulf Paul Ruggiers University of Oklahoma Geoffrey Chaucer Music Research Also won in 1955 History of orchestral music University of Michigan Instrumental ensemble music of the late Renaissance Leo Franz Schrade Yale University Polyphonic music of the 14th century Also won in 1949, 1951 Near Eastern Studies Henry George Fischer University of Pennsylvania Museum Provincial government in Egypt prior to the Middle Kingdom Benno Landsberger Also won in 1953 Philosophy Karl Aschenbrenner University of California, Berkeley Principle of coherence in art George Boas Johns Hopkins University Presuppositions of Aristotle Stuart MacDonald Brown, Jr. Cornell University Philosophical study of the theory of inalienable rights Emil Ludwig Fackenheim University of Toronto Development of the philosophy of religion from Kant to Kierkegaard Glenn Raymond Morrow University of Pennsylvania Also won in 1952 John Daniel Wild, Jr. Harvard University Philosophical anthropology Also won in 1930 Frederick D. Wilhelmsen University of Santa Clara Renaissance History Daniel C. Boughner Evansville College Ben Jonson's debt to the Italian Renaissance Also won in 1958 William Garrett Crane City College of New York Paul Alfred Jorgensen University of California, Los Angeles Robert Starr Kinsman University of California, Los Angeles Lewis William Spitz University of Missouri Religious thought of certain German Renaissance humanists Russian History Josef Korbel University of Denver Impact of Soviet-German relations in the countries located between the Soviet Union and Germany University of California, Berkeley Pre-Soviet cultural and political trends in Russia and Poland Also won in 1955 Richard Edgar Pipes Harvard University Ideas and social bases of Russian conservatism from its emergence at the end of the 18th century to 1917 Also won in 1965 Adam