Funding: National Archives Awards $2.8 Million in Grants to 33 Documentary Editing and Archival Projects

From the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA):

Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero has awarded 33 proposals totaling $2,812,416 for projects in 18 states. The National Archives grants program is carried out through the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC).

A complete list of new grants is online.

Grants went to 17 documentary editing projects to publish the papers of key American figures, including two new projects—the Papers of Martin Van Buren, eighth president of the United States, and the Complete Writings and Selected Correspondence of John Dickinson, the author of many of the nation’s founding documents.

Three grants went to projects to increase public engagement with historical records.  Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania will develop new educational and community programs on records from the Carlisle Indian School (1879-1918).

The University of North Carolina will create the Digital Rocky Mount Mills website with records documenting the history of the cotton mills and their place in the region in collaboration with community partners, teacher workshops, and genealogists of African American descent.

The Alabama Bicentennial Commission Foundation will use historical records as part of the three-year commemoration of the bicentennial of the state in collaboration with the Alabama Department of Archives & History, the Alabama Department of Education, and the Alabama Learning Exchange.

Providing public access to historical records is the focus of 13 projects, including digitizing papers of major historical figures including labor activist Mike Ross at the Southern Labor Archives at Georgia State University; journalist and Republican activist W.D. Workman, Jr. at the University of South Carolina; Connecticut Revolutionary War veteran Elijah Boardman at the Litchfield Historical Society; and George Moscone, activist and mayor of San Francisco at the University of the Pacific. The Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities will digitize the papers of military engineer Thomas Lincoln Casey and his son, responsible for the construction of several landmark buildings in Washington, DC.

The Hagley Library and Museum will make more broadly accessible the papers of designers Ken White and Marshall Johnson. Berkeley’s Environmental Design Archives will put online records documenting California’s Sea Ranch community, and Cal State-Pomona will make several key collections available. Early Land Records documenting colonial and early American property will be made accessible through the Genealogical Society of New Jersey. Archiving arts projects include La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club; the Storefront for Art and Architecture; arts space AS220 at the archives of the Providence Public Library; and WNET’s “American Masters” Digital Archives.

Direct to a Complete List of Projects Awarded Funding

Filed under: Archives and Special Collections, Awards, Digital Collections, Funding, Journal Articles, Libraries, News, Preservation, Public Libraries