National Historical Publications and Records Commission Grants - May 2016
National Historical Publications and Records Commission Grants
May 2016
Digital Dissemination of Archival Records
For projects which disseminate digital surrogates of historical records collections on the Internet.
Kent State University
Kent, OH$119,443
To support digitization of 72,550 pages documenting the events that led up to the May 4, 1970 Kent State shootings, which occurred during protests against the Vietnam War, and its aftermath.
Wichita State University
Wichita, KS$63,896
To support digitization of approximately 17,500 pages from the James R. Mead Papers. Mead (1836 –1910) was an explorer, plainsman, one of the founders of Wichita, Kansas, and a state legislator.
Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD$36,790
To support digitization of correspondence from the Daniel C. Gilman Papers collection. Gilman (1831-1908) was president of Johns Hopkins University (1875-1901), where he created the first full graduate program in America, and later served as the president of the new Carnegie Institution of Washington.
University of Miami
Coral Gables, FL$136,410
To support digitization of 114,300 pages from the Pan Am World Airways Printed Materials collection, documenting the history (1927-1991) of this international leader in aviation transportation.
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA$18,550
To support the digitization and online access of 10,200 pages of the correspondence of Hamlin Garland (1860-1940), a founding voice of American literary realism, known for his fiction of the American plains and farmlands.
Access to Historical Records
For projects that promote the preservation and use of historical records collections to broaden understanding of our democracy, history, and culture.
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA$110,677
To support a two year project at the Bancroft Library to process approximately 500 linear feet of environmental organizations' collections. The thirteen collections scheduled for processing document the international influence of the environmental movement in the western United States and specifically in California.
Institute for Editing Historical Records
For projects to improve the training and education of historical documentary editors.
Association for Documentary Editing
Boston, MA$264,987
To support a three year project to continue the Institute for Editing Historical Documents, advanced seminars on critical issues, and co sponsored workshops with related professional organizations.
Publishing Historical Records
For projects that document major historical figures, and important eras and social movements in the history of the nation.
University of Tennessee
Knoxville, TN$115,500
To support a project to edit the Papers of Andrew Jackson, the seventh President of the United States, with editorial work on Volume 11, documenting the year 1833—a year in which the two-term president initiated the Indian removal plan, faced the South Carolina Nullification crisis, and continued to wage war on the national bank.
Indiana University-Purdue University
Indianapolis, IN$57,266
To support a project to edit the Frederick Douglass Papers, a documentary edition of the historical records of this 19th-century African American social reformer, orator, and statesman, with work on Volumes 3 and 4 of the Correspondence Series, including postwar letters that reveal Douglass's active participation in the debates over Reconstruction both inside Republican Party circles and as a spokesperson on behalf of African American civil rights; Volume 1 of the Journalism and Other Writings Series, illuminating Douglass's work as a professional journalist, diarist, and author of fiction; an abridged paperback volume, Selected Speeches of Frederick Douglass; and launch the free, public-access Frederick Douglass Digital Edition.
Ramapo College of New Jersey
Mahwah, NJ$108,240
To support the newly-reconstituted Jane Addams Papers Project, which will digitize, transcribe and publish online Jane Addams’ correspondence and writings (articles, diaries, speeches) from the period 1909-1913. Documents to be edited showcase Addams’ involvement in national reform work, joining the National American Woman Suffrage Association and the National Charities and Correction Conference, and heading the National Council on Social Work.
Kentucky Historical Society Foundation
Frankfort, KY$62,400
To support a one-year project to continue work on the Civil War Governors of Kentucky Digital Documentary Edition project, an annotated, searchable, and freely accessible online edition of documents associated with the three Union and two Confederate governors of the commonwealth for the period 1860-1865. These documents reveal the diverse and largely unknown lives of thousands of Kentuckians who interacted with the office of the governor during the Civil War. During the grant period, the project staff will develop a web interface called Annotation Beta and populate it with 1,500 fully annotated and edited documents.
Trustees of Columbia University
New York, NY$120,490
To support a project to edit the Selected Papers of John Jay, the statesman and diplomat, with work on Volumes 5-7 (1789-1829). During the period covered in these volumes, Jay served as the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court where he helped establish the role of the judicial branch in the new government. Then he was recalled to the world of diplomacy and negotiated the controversial treaty with Britain that came to bear his name. He subsequently was elected to serve as Governor of New York for six years.
SUNY College at Old Westbury
Old Westbury, NY$57,233
To support a project to edit the Clarence Mitchell Jr. Papers, the civil rights lawyer and director of the Washington Bureau of the NAACP, with work on Volumes 5-7. These three volumes document Mitchell’s NAACP activities in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education through the passage of the 1957 and 1964 Civil Rights Acts.
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA$146,192
To support a project to edit the Papers of George Washington, with work on three volumes of the Revolutionary War Series, covering the period June 1780 through February 1781, two volumes of the Presidential Series, documenting the period April 1796 to March 1797, and digital conversion work to add three volumes to the Digital Edition. The documents to be edited for the Revolutionary War Series show Washington working with the Quartermaster and many others to find the necessary supplies, while still maintaining pressure on the British Army, and looking to France for more strategic support. These volumes are also key sources into the early weaknesses of the Confederation form of government. Documents to be edited for the Presidential Series provide insight into the nation's political crisis over the Jay Treaty, and show how Washington's desire for more stable relations with Britain resulted in deep conflicts among Washington and his revolutionary counterparts such as Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.
University of Tennessee
Knoxville, TN$52,184
To support a project to edit the Correspondence of James K. Polk, the 11th President of the United States, with work on Volume 14 of the Digital Edition. The correspondence to be edited and published document the period April 1848-June 1849, and illuminate the Polk administration's response to the conclusion of the Mexican-American War, the establishment of a new revolutionary government in France, which it recognized, and the struggle to find unity in a nation increasingly torn over the issue of slavery.
University of Maryland
College Park, MD$130,570
To support the Freedmen and Southern Society Project, documenting the history of emancipation in the United States, with editorial work on Volume 7 (Law and Justice), illuminating and documenting the deployment of law, judicial institutions, and extralegal violence to limit ex-slaves' freedom, and Volume 8 (Family and Kinship), documenting the efforts of ex-slaves to locate and reunite with kin from whom they had been forcibly separated, and the logistical and emotional challenges of reconstituting fragmented families.
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA$115,000
To support a project to edit and publish a comprehensive edition of the Papers of James Madison, the fourth President of the United States and "Father of the Constitution," with work on multiple volumes. Volumes 11 and 12 of the Secretary of State Series document the year 1806 that saw Madison wrestling with aspects of Anglo-American relations, Franco-American relations, relations with Spain, and the Barbary Wars. The editors will work on the last two volumes of the Presidential Series (covering February 1815 to March 1817), which provide documentary evidence on U.S. Foreign affairs, recovery from the War of 1812, and establishment of the second Bank of the United States. Volume 4 of the Retirement Series documents the years 1826-1828, and illustrates Madison’s continued involvement with political thought and the proper treatment of slavery in the republic, his close involvement in the operations of the University of Virginia that opened in 1825, and his troubled personal finances.
University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA$63,877
To support a project to initiate work on Fame and Infamy: Walt Whitman's Old Age Correspondence, which aims to collect, edit, and publish the 19th century American poet's correspondence from 1888 to 1892, the final four years of his life, as part of the online Walt Whitman Archive. The correspondence reveals his continuing interest in events that were shaping the nation and the emergence of a significant national and international body of Whitman admirers and readers. The project staff will begin its work by creating a catalog of Whitman's incoming and outgoing correspondence from the entire four-year period and publishing 375 letters from 1888.
Stanford University
Stanford, CA$130,000
To support a project to edit the Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers, a documentary edition of historical records of this 20th-century Civil Rights leader, with work on Volumes 8-9, covering the period of September 1962 through 1964, and the Digital Edition. Documents to be edited illuminate King's planning and leadership of the watershed campaign to desegregate Birmingham, Alabama; the seminal March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom; King's tenuous relationship with the Kennedy administration; and the completion of his 1963 book of sermons, Strength to Love.
Yale University
New Haven, CT$113,400
To support the Yale Indian Papers Project, for work to transcribe, annotate and publish online Phase One of The Massachusetts Collection. Through hundreds of petitions, researchers will gain access to a diverse range of Native American voices speaking on an equally wide array of subjects, including slavery and other forms of servitude, regional warfare and its consequences, Indian sovereignty, Indian-European military, economic and social relations, and the Massachusetts Indians' political situation as "wards of the state" in the wake of a Revolution they had fought for and helped to achieve.
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
Brunswick, NJ$99,352
To support a project to edit the Papers of Thomas A. Edison, a documentary edition of the historical records of the late 19th/early 20th century American inventor and entrepreneur. The project staff will select correspondence for the period 1922-1923 and laboratory notebooks for inclusion in the online image edition. Work will also continue on Volumes 9 and 10, which will cover the period 1888 through early 1892. These volumes will document the opening of his new laboratory at Orange, New Jersey. The impressive scale of his laboratory facilities and staff enabled Edison to engage in a broad array of inventive projects.
Massachusetts Historical Society
Boston, MA$51,200
To support a project to edit the Robert Treat Paine Papers, which documents the life, political activities, and legal practice of this Massachusetts lawyer, jurist, and signer of the Declaration of Independence. Spanning the years 1746-1814, the edition provides rich documentary evidence for the study of subjects as varied as the development of antislavery thought in the pre-revolutionary period, the Boston Massacre trials, debates in the First Continental Congress, the disposition of Loyalist property, and Shay's Rebellion. The final two volumes document Paine’s later years, when he served as a Massachusetts court justice and then attorney general, and later as a State Supreme Court justice.
University of South Carolina
Columbia, SC$90,752
To support its project to edit the Pinckney Statesmen of South Carolina digital edition, documenting the lives and careers of the brothers Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and Thomas Pinckney, and their cousin, Charles Pinckney. Materials to be edited span the period 1792-1815 and document networks of correspondence with European diplomats that provide a nuanced view of U.S. diplomatic relations in the early republic. Diplomatic and personal correspondence document Thomas Pinckney's involvement as the special envoy to Spain, in negotiating the 1795 Treaty of San Lorenzo ("Pinckney’s Treaty"), and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney's role in the 1797 mission known as the "XYZ Affair." Documents also include Charles Pinckney's service as Governor of South Carolina during the 1790s, and the emergence of the Jeffersonian party at the state and national levels.
Literacy and Engagement with Historical Records
For projects that encourage citizen engagement with historical records, especially those available online, and/or projects that train people on how to enhance digital literacy skills for using historical records.
University of Rochester
Rochester, NY$97,434
To support to a collaborative project where volunteers from Highlands at Pittsford, a retirement community will work with undergraduate and graduate students to assist in the preparation of a digital edition of the papers of the Seward Family. The Seward Family digital archives centers on Frances Miller Seward and her husband, William H. Seward, governor of New York (1838-1842), U.S. Senator (1849-1860) and U.S. Secretary of State (1860-1869).
Cleveland Museum of Natural History
Cleveland, OH$78,000
To support a collaborative project, which involves the Archives of the Cleveland Museum of History, Baldwin Wallace University, and the University of Akron’s Department of Geosciences, to establish curriculum introducing middle school and high school students to historical records created by Arthur B. Williams, an educator who studied the forests and wildlife surrounding Cleveland in the 1930s and developed unique methods of tracking species. Students will compare contemporary observations to historical data to understand both scientific techniques and changing ecosystems.
St. John’s University, New York
Queens, NY$149,936
To support a project to develop curricula and resources to inspire inquiry-based learning by students in the 10th grade, using students’ family history to connect their own histories with broader trends in the world. The collaborative project will work with the New York City Department of Education and the Queens Memory Project to train teachers in available family history resources appropriate for the classroom.
University of South Carolina
Columbia, SC$75,860
To support a collaborative project with the university libraries' Digital Collections department in collaboration with the South Carolina Department of Education to work with 45 elementary, middle school, and high school teachers to create Document Based Questions (DBQs) for U.S. history classes. Teachers will draw on the resources of the University for the primary sources, test the DBQs in their classroom, and then publish the results on the South Carolina Digital Library and the Digital Public Library of America.
State Government Electronic Records
For projects to accession, describe, preserve, and provide access to state government electronic records of enduring value.
Colorado State Archives
Denver, CO$121,448
To support a two-year project to convert born-digital audio recordings of the Colorado General Assembly's 2002-2011 legislative sessions from an obsolete format to a supportable and open-source format.
University of Illinois
Champaign, IL $197,130
To support a three-year project to develop and demonstrate a reliable and sustainable method to identify and provide appropriate access to relevant email messages using Continuous Active Learning (or Predictive Coding) tools.
Alabama Department of Archives and History
Birmingham, AL $199,447
To support a three-year project in collaboration with the Office of the Governor to develop a process workflow to manage, preserve, and provide access to permanent electronic records from the Office of the Governor.
CONTACT: Keith Donohue, NHPRC Communications Director, Keith.Donohue@nara.gov, (202) 357-5365.