NHPRC Awards
November 2023
STATE BOARDS
For projects that strengthen the nation's archival network through activities undertaken by state historical records advisory boards.
Ohio Historical Society
Columbus, OH
$34,040 to support the work of the Ohio Historical Records Advisory Board and its professional educational programs, collaborative projects, and a regrant program for the preservation, organization and digitization of historical records. (RC-103627)
Utah Division of Archives and Records Service
Salt Lake City, UT
$40,000 to support the Utah Historical Records Advisory Board, including a regrants program, History Day awards, Archives Month programming, and training opportunities, including its Archives Fundamentals virtual course, and two new in-depth “Fundamentals 202” courses on access and digitization. (RC-103629)
South Carolina Department of Archives and History
Columbia, SC
$80,000 to support the South Carolina State Historical Records Advisory Board regrant program over the next two years, with special consideration to the state’s traditionally underserved populations, including the Historically Black Colleges and Universities. (RC-103630)
Wyoming Department of State Parks and Cultural Resources
Cheyenne, WY
$79,988 to support the Wyoming State Historical Records Advisory Board’s work to broaden the network of support for the state’s historical records repositories. Funds will enable the board to continue its Roving Archivist Program for one-on-one consultations; make four regrant awards of up to $2,500; and sponsor four workshops on caring for collections at different locations around the state. (RC-103631)
Kansas State Historical Society
Topeka, KS
$79,498 to support two years of programming by the Kansas Historical Records Advisory Board regrant program for digitization and online access via Kansas Memory; online finding aids; website development; and preservation reformatting. The grant will also support professional development scholarships to Kansas archivists to the Midwest Archives Conference; and a traveling local records archivist. (RC-103634)
Idaho State Historical Society
Boise, ID
$17,750 to support a community regrant program by the Idaho Historical Records Advisory Board of at least five regrants ranging from $1,000 to $3,000 to local Idaho projects that increase public access to historical records. (RC-103635)
New Mexico Commission of Public Records
Santa Fe, NM
$80,000 to support a three-year program by the New Mexico Historical Records Advisory Board to award 12 regrants during the grant period to state and local government entities, educational institutions, historical societies, community libraries, and museums. Funds will allow the board to conduct a minimum of four site visits to regrant projects and to offer two archival training workshops. (RC-103636)
Colorado Historical Records Advisory Board
Denver, CO
$39,649 to support a two-year initiative by the Colorado Historical Records Advisory Board to serve archival collections and institutions in rural areas of the state that reflect underserved and under-documented communities. The board will continue its successful regrants program by offering up to 5 awards of $5,000 each; send a traveling archivist to the rural Four Corners area in southwestern Colorado to conduct a survey of collections and archival materials and to conduct two-day “Archives 101” workshops. (RC-103638)
North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources
Raleigh, NC
$43,168 to support the North Carolina Historical Records Advisory Board for two-year programming for its Community Archiving Training & Support initiative. Activities will include travel for three to six regional information sessions and at the North Carolina Library Association 2025 annual conference; development of webinars, guidebooks, and tip sheets to support community archiving activities; and interns for the Traveling Archivist Program to visit at least five repositories each year. (RC-103639)
State Historical Society of Iowa
Des Moines, IA
$3,875 to support the work of the Iowa Historical Records Advisory Board to provide information and training in standards and best practices; Promote Preservation Week (April) and Archives Month (October), and continue board member review of grant applications for State of Iowa documentary collections through the Iowa Historical Resource Development Program program. (RC-103640)
Nevada State Library, Archives and Public Records
Carson City, NV
$11,980 to support the work of the Nevada Historical Records Advisory Board to convene at least three board meetings; finalize the board’s plan and objectives based on statewide needs assessment results; provide professional training through free one-day preservation/conservation workshops, in collaboration with UNLV Libraries Special Collections & Archives, and award small travel stipends for workshop participants. (RC-103642)
State Historical Society of Wisconsin
Madison, WI
$37,846 to support the work of the Wisconsin Historical Records Advisory Board for two years to carry out the annual state-wide Governor’s Archives Awards and provide up to six annual professional development scholarships; sponsor two sessions each year at the Wisconsin Local History and Historic Preservation Conference; complete a “landscape mapping process” to identify archival institutions and scopes of collections state-wide to prepare for the 2024-2029 board strategic plan. (RC-104652)
Vermont State Archives and Records Administration
Montpelier, VT
$31,459 to support the Vermont Historical Records Program, a collaborative initiative of the Vermont Historical Records Advisory Board and the Vermont State Archives and Records Administration. The VHRP will develop “A Day of Learning” with the Vermont Arts & Culture Disaster and Resilience Network for up to 70 people; provide 400 hours of paid student internship(s) to assist historical records repositories; continue site visits by a Roving Archivist; host two workshops and a lending program for environmental monitoring equipment; mobile digitization; and planning for a statewide digital repository. (RC-104653)
Maine State Archives
Portland, ME
$40,000 to support the work of the Maine Historical Records Advisory Board to create and administer a regrant program. Regrants may be awarded for Preservation Assessment and for Collection or Item Assessment. (RC-104654)
University of Georgia Research Foundation
Athens, GA
$80,000 to support the work of the Georgia Historical Records Advisory Council for two years of programming to: offer regrants for local repositories, giving preference to underserved communities; fund an annual competitive scholarship to cover the cost of attending the Georgia Archives Institute; provide partial support for four workshops for preservation training hosted by the Georgia Archives; support the GHRAC awards program; and co-sponsor Georgia Archives Month in 2024 and 2025. (RC-104655)
Indiana Archives and Records Administration
Indianapolis, IN
$19,335 to support the work of the Indiana State Historical Records Advisory Board to provide registration fees for up to 20 people to attend the American Association of State and Local History’s Basics of Archives online course; sponsor a Records Management Course; fund two summer Internships for two Indiana archival institutions, with preference given to smaller organizations; and host four conservation workshops. (RC-104658)
Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records
Phoenix, AZ
$77,044 to support two years of programming by the Arizona Historical Records Advisory Board to fund a regrant program of up to $20,000 for 8-14 projects; four free, day-long workshops on the basics of archives or emergency/disaster preparedness; promotion of Archives Month through a poster and at least three public programs; scholarships; co-sponsor the annual statewide Arizona Archives Summit; and reach out to underserved repositories, including tribal archives to encourage them to participate in the Summit. (RC-104660)
ARCHIVES COLLABORATIVES
For projects to plan and develop a working collaborative designed to enhance the capacity of small and diverse organizations with historical records collections.
Planning Grants
Albany County Historical Association
Albany, NY
$25,000 to support a collaboration with the New Netherland Institute and New York State Library to inventory historical documents from c. 1664-1827 and create a digital exhibit of 200-250 items related to African Americans and Native Americans within the Anglo-Dutch culture in the region. The time frame begins in the year that Dutch governance ceded to English rule and extends to the year of the final manumission of enslaved persons in New York. (RJ-104663)
Implementation Grants
Urban Archive
New York, NY
$100,000 to support the third phase of development and implementation of Urban Archive’s Collections Management and Engagement Program. Since its launch in 2020, CMEP has integrated over 200,000 photographs from the collections of more than 90 organizations across Albany, Newburgh, and New York City. (RJ-103657)
MAJOR INITIATIVES
For projects that will significantly improve public discovery and use of major historical records collections.
Utah Valley University
Orem, UT
$350,000 to support a collaboration between the Center for Constitutional Studies at Utah Valley University and the Quill Project at Pembroke College, Oxford University, to expand its undergraduate‐led digital modeling of state constitutional conventions with those states that framed and adopted their current constitutions between 1848 and 1864: Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, and Nevada. (RM-103660)
PUBLISHING HISTORICAL RECORDS
For projects that document major historical figures, and important eras and social movements in the history of the nation.
University of Wisconsin
Madison, WI
$125,000 to support editorial work on its collaborative digital edition project, ¡Presente!: Documenting Latinx History in Wisconsin. A collaboration with the Wisconsin Historical Society and community partners, this bilingual, digital edition is dedicated to highlighting the stories of Latinx communities in Wisconsin. During the proposed grant period, project staff will finalize an advisory council of scholars and community members to establish standards for assessment and selection of collections; select, digitize, transcribe, and create metadata for 250 items; train students and select staff in digitization, transcription, and metadata creation; develop translation policies and best practices for an Editorial Policies Manual; and present at professional and community sponsored events. (PL-103633)
American University
Washington, DC
$100,000 to support its project to edit the Correspondence of Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore and produce digital and print editions of letters to and from the 12th and 13th U.S. presidents. During the proposed grant period, project staff will advance editorial work on volume 1 and submit the completed manuscript to the University of Tennessee Press; begin work on locating and imaging 200 letters for volumes 2 and 3; and continue promotion and outreach by writing four public-interest news articles and promoting regularly on social media. (PD-103643)
Kentucky Historical Society
Frankfort, KY
$88,835 to support a project to edit and publish the Civil War Governors of Kentucky Digital Documentary Edition. During the grant year, editorial staff will transcribe and markup 3,500 documents; markup, double proof, and upload 1,000 newly documents to the project site; audit annotation procedures to ensure editorial consistency across the edition; and improve interpretation of resources for public audiences. (PD-103646)
Massachusetts Historical Society
Boston, MA
$100,000 to support a project to edit and publish The Adams Papers, a selective edition of the papers of John Adams and the Adams Family. During the grant year, editorial staff will publish Adams Family Correspondence Volume 16; advance editorial work for Volume 17; complete annotation of documents and editorial matter for the Papers of John Adams, Volume 23 and continue editorial work on Volume 24; and prepare XML files for Adams Family Correspondence, Volume 15. (PD-103648)
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ
$100,000 to support a project to edit and publish The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. During the grant year, staff will review, index, and publish volume 48; complete final review for volume 49; begin final review for volume 50; complete annotation checking for volume 51; complete annotation work and 75% of second-level verification for volume 52; complete 35% of annotation work for volume 53; complete online digital exhibit on the drafting of the Declaration of Independence; add all documents from volume 46 to the electronic editions; and continue to work with the Center for Digital Editing to manage updates and add content to the Jefferson’s Weather and Climate Records Digital Edition. (PD-103651)
Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD
$125,000 to support editorial work on its collaborative digital edition project, Kinship and Longing: Keywords for Black Louisiana, a digital edition that highlights Black life and culture of the Gulf Coast. This community-engaged digital edition of annotated, transcribed, and translated manuscript documents from 18th-century French and Spanish Louisiana on the lives and resistance of enslaved and free people of African descent against bondage, colonialism, and the everyday terror of slavery. During the proposed grant period, project staff will review selection of 100 documents in digital edition entries, begin 20 transcriptions/translations and review 240 document pages; add long-form content to the prototype/beta site including description of editorial practices, about pages, and resources for teachers; maintain and develop relationships within the project team; formalize the Keywords Community Circle and Advisory Board; and continue to build and launch a beta edition. (PD-103658)
University of Maryland
College Park, MD
$100,000 to edit a project to edit and publish Slavery, Law, & Power: Debating Justice and Democracy in Early America and the British Empire —a selective documentary editing project on the British imperial and ideological origins of North American slavery and politics in the 17th and 18th centuries. During the proposed grant period, editorial staff will acquire images of documents and secure publication rights for documents of approximately 300 pages; produce initial transcription and annotation and contextualization of materials for at least 250 pages; encode at least 200 pages and publish at least 150 pages to the website; engage in public outreach, including presenting at 1-2 conferences; develop a social media strategy and begin to implement it, and seek additional outreach opportunities such as workshops, publications, and presentations in classrooms. (PD-103659)
NHPRC-MELLON Planning Grants for Collaborative Digital Editions in African American, Asian American, Hispanic American, and Native American History and Ethnic Studies
These planning projects are designed to foster collaboration and broaden participation in the production and publication of historical and scholarly digital editions. This program was made possible with funding provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries
Philadelphia, PA
$119,040 to support planning of a collaborative digital edition to document, interrogate, and illustrate stories of Black Joy and Resilience in the greater Philadelphia area. In collaboration with Princeton University, the Stoutsburg Sourland African American Museum, Historic Germantown, and Temple University Libraries, the Consortium will collect stories from collections held by a dozen or more repositories in and around Philadelphia in three broad areas: play through laughter, amusement, and entertainment; relationship and community building; and growth through achievement and overcoming challenges. (PL-104670)
Haverford College
Haverford, PA
$90,000 to support planning of a collaborative digital edition of Colonial Zapotec texts and accompanying resources. Partners are members of the transnational Ticha team of scholars working with indigenous texts for language reclamation and study. Administered at Haverford College, Ticha has worked collaboratively for the ten years and has developed a website and an international network of community, including members of the transnational Zapotec community through a formalized Zapotec Advisory Board and via outreach to others in both California and Oaxaca. (PL-104672)
University of Oklahoma
Norman, OK
$119,934 to support planning of the collaborative digital edition, Black Artists of Oklahoma. Led by a team at the University of Oklahoma and two institutional partners, the Oklahoma Historical Society and Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center, this edition will explore the works and lives of Black artists in Oklahoma, by gathering and digitally publishing discussions of their work, reproductions of artworks, bibliographical data, newspaper clippings, social media posts, oral histories, and digitized archival materials. (PL-104682)
University of Oklahoma
Norman, OK
$120,000 to support planning of a collaborative digital edition entitled Indigenous Truthtelling of Boarding Schools. This edition will connect archival collections in Oklahoma and Utah with educational resources about Native American boarding schools from various Indigenous perspectives with an emphasis on oral history, art, and archaeology. A team of Native American Studies scholars, historians, archivists, librarians, art historians, museum specialists, curriculum designers, archeologists, geographers, and educators are working with Indigenous boarding school survivors/alumni and their descendants to build a digital edition designed for educators and students. (PL-104683)
University of Texas
Austin, TX
$119,400 to support planning of a collaborative digital edition project, Commemorating Student Activism: Past, Present, and Future. Envisioned as a digital humanities repository and scholarly resource, the edition will document, digitize, and contextualize records dealing with Black and Brown student activism on and off Austin campuses from 1945 to the present; and map these protests and struggles to show how activism has shaped the city. The project team consists of cross-institutional efforts among scholars at UT-Austin, Huston-Tillotson University, local community groups, city-run institutions such as the Austin History Center, and individual activists. (PL-104684)
South Asian American Digital Archive
Philadelphia, PA
$120,000 to support planning of a collaborative digital edition project, Built By Us: South Asian American Entrepreneurship and Community Building. Envisioned as an interpretive resource on the history of South Asian American immigrant communities, Built By Us is centered on archival materials from community institutions established after the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which led to a significant increase in immigration from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and other South Asian countries. The project team consists of SAADA staff members, scholar-editors, and an advisory panel. (PL-104686)
History Center of Lake Forest-Lake Bluff
Lake Forest, IL
$105,704 to support planning of the collaborative digital edition, Deeply Rooted and Rising High: African American Experiences in Lake Forest. The edition gathers together an extensive collection of materials on the history of the Black population of Lake Forest, Illinois, covering 1860 to present day. The publication will provide access to primary sources, including personal interviews, images, interactive maps, and digitized material culture. The project team is composed of Lake Forest College faculty and students, graduate students from Loyola University’s Public History Department, community advisors, and the curatorial staff at the History Center of Lake Forest-Lake Bluff. (PL-104687)
Villanova University
Villanova, PA
$120,000 to support planning for Taught by Literature: Recentering Early Black Women Intellectuals, a collaborative digital humanities project to make writing by early Black women available for scholars, college and K-12 students, and the broader public. The project centers around an unpublished collection of short stories by Black author Alice Dunbar-Nelson written in the late 1890s and early 1900s. Her work addresses the topics of racism, oppression, family, work, and sexuality. This project is a collaboration with team members from the Center for Black Digital Research at Penn State University, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Villanova University supported by additional institutional partnerships with the American Antiquarian Society, the School District of Philadelphia, and the University of Delaware Special Collections and Museums. (PL-104688)
Northwestern University
Chicago, IL
$118,948 to support planning for its collaborative digital edition project, Literary Voyager or Ojibwe Muzzeniegun, based on a manuscript literary magazine created in 1826 and 1827 on Ojibwe homelands. Representing some of the earliest translations into English, the Muzzeniegun participated in a vibrant 19th-century Indigenous literary culture of exchange across multiple languages, genres, and media. The edition is led by a collaborative team of Native and non-Native scholars of Indigenous and U.S. literatures and histories from the 18th century to the present. The project team and advisory board includes historians, poets, and Indigenous language speakers of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians, and Bay Mills Indian Community, and scholars from other Ojibwe nations. Team members are from Northwestern University, the University of North Texas, the University of Minnesota-Duluth, Ohio State University, Macalester College, University of Illinois-Champaign Urbana, University of California San Diego, and Iowa State University. (PL-104690)
University of Maryland
College Park, MD
$119,996 to support a planning grant to create a documentary edition of the Revue des Colonies, the first French periodical directed by people of color. Published monthly between 1834 and 1842 under the direction of Martinican abolitionist Cyrille Bissette, the Revue published Black authors from France, the Caribbean, and the US, and liberally circulated reports (in French translation) from American antislavery periodicals. The proposed edition will provide access to the entire print run of 72 issues alongside a selection of contemporaneous material including original English language sources, correspondence, pamphlets, and petitions. The project is a collaboration among the University of Maryland, the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities, and scholars from the U.S., France, and French-speaking countries in the Caribbean. (PL-104691)
Miami University
Oxford, OH
$120,000 to support planning for Making the Invisible Visible, a collaborative digital edition on Asian histories in Ohio, including those Asian Americans and diasporic Asian communities who have made significant contributions to the state’s economy, culture, art, and education. Drawn from print and born-digital materials from the 1830s to the present, the edition will include newspaper and magazine coverage, photographs, and other historical records and artifacts documenting events, performances, business registration, and other aspects of community and organizational life. The project is a collaboration with team members drawn from Miami University of Ohio and the University of California, Irvine, with additional Ohio universities, libraries and museums. (PL-104692)