Commission Recommends $4 Million in Grants
Press Release · Friday, December 10, 2010

Washington, DC

At its recent meeting, the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) awarded 53 grants totaling $4 million for projects in 31 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

Over $1 million in funding went for State and National Archives Partnership grants to enable two dozen state historical records advisory boards to carry out their missions of archival education, provide regrant programs to local historical repositories and archives, and continue to strengthen the nation’s archival network.

Publishing Grants totaling $1.7 million were awarded for 12 publishing projects from the U.S. Colonial and Early National Period, including the papers of Founders Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison. Four new volumes of documentary editions received subvention support for print editions. A grant to the Association for Documentary Editing will support a three-year project to substantially revise the annual Institute for Editing of Historical Documents and introduce new professional development programs for the digital era.

Nearly $835,000 was awarded to support Digitizing Historical Records and Electronic Records projects, such as the University of Illinois, Chicago project to digitize over 30,000 historic photographs of the Windy City and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival’s plan to create an Electronic Records Archive.

A complete list of all grants is below.

Kathleen Williams, Executive Director of the NHPRC, presented the grant applications and policy issues to the full Commission, including an update on the cooperative agreement with the University of Virginia Press to create a new website featuring the writings of the Founders of the United States of America. The Commission also welcomed its newest member, Erin Mahan, Chief Historian of the Department of Defense.

The Archivist of the United States, David S. Ferriero, is the Chairman of the Commission, which includes representatives from all three branches of the Federal government as well as the leading archival and historical professional associations. The NHPRC is the sole federal funding agency whose only focus is the documentary heritage of the United States. Established in 1934, it awards grants for preserving, publishing, and providing access to the nation’s historical documents.

NHPRC Recommended Grants ~ November 2010

STATE AND NATIONAL ARCHIVAL PARTNERSHIP GRANTS
Projects that strengthen archives and historical records programs in each of the states and build a national archival network.

Arizona State Library
Phoenix, AZ                                          $67,250
To support the work of Arizona Historical Records Advisory Board, including a statewide regrants program and two annual archival summits.

Colorado State Historical Records
  Advisory Board
Denver, CO                                           $25,000
To support the work of the Colorado Historical Records Record Advisory Board, including a statewide regrant program.

Connecticut State Library
Hartford, CT                                          $34,599
To support the work of the Connecticut Historical Records Advisory Board, including a statewide disaster planning and response project.

Georgia Office Secretary of State
Morrow, GA                                          $32,500
To support the work of the Georgia Historical Records Advisory Board, including workshops and an annual conference of the Georgia Records Association.

Idaho State Historical Society
Boise, ID                                               $60,250
To support the work of the Idaho Historical Records Advisory Board, including a statewide regrants program.

Illinois Secretary of State-
  Illinois State Archives
Springfield, IL                                      $100,000
To support the work of the Illinois Historical Records Advisory Board, including a statewide regrants program, and scholarships for continuing education opportunities for archivists.

Indiana Commission on Public Records
Indianapolis, IN                                     $45,000
To support the work of the Indiana Historical Records Advisory Board, including a statewide regrants program.

Kansas State Historical Society
Topeka, KS                                            $30,000
To support the work of the Kansas Historical Records Advisory Board, including public workshops.

Kentucky State Historical Records
  Advisory Board
Frankfort, KY                                        $15,000
To support the work of the Kentucky Historical Records Advisory Board, including a continuing education workshop and webinars.

Maine State Archives
Augusta, ME                                          $48,899
To support the work of the Maine Historical Records Advisory Board, including a Civil War Sesquicentennial Coordinator, and a statewide regrants program.

Mississippi Department of Archives & History
Jackson, MS                                           $99,390
To support the work of the Mississippi Historical Records Advisory Board, including a statewide county records program.

Nebraska State Historical Society
Lincoln, NE                                           $10,991
To support the work of the Nebraska Historical Records Advisory Board, including the development of a traveling student archivist program.

New Mexico Commission of Public Records
Santa Fe, NM                                       $100,000
To support the work of the New Mexico Historical Records Advisory Board, including workshops, and a statewide regrants program.

North Carolina Department
  of Cultural Resources
Raleigh, NC                                           $30,000
To support the work of the North Carolina Historical Records Advisory Board, including support for a part-time project archivist, web design, and a statewide electronic records forum.

State Historical Society of North Dakota
Bismarck, ND                                        $11,388
To support the work of the North Dakota Historical Records Advisory Board, including workshop scholarships.

Ohio Historical Society
Columbus, OH                         $21,377
To support the work of the Ohio Historical Records Advisory Board, including a statewide regrant program.

Oklahoma Department of Libraries
Oklahoma City, OK                               $95,000
To support the work of the Oklahoma Historical Records Advisory Board, including workshop and conference scholarships, a traveling archivist, and a statewide regrants program.

Oregon Secretary of State, Archives Division
Salem, OR                                             $29, 140
To support the work of the Oregon Historical Records Advisory Board, including workshops, and a records repatriation project.

Commonwealth of Puerto Rico
  Office of the Governor
San Juan, PR                                            $5,000
To support a project assistant for a Commonwealth archives program.

South Carolina Department of Archives
  & History
Columbia, SC                                           $8,000
To support the work of the South Carolina Historical Records Advisory Board, including a statewide archives awards program.

Tennessee State Library and Archives
Nashville, TN                                         $95,000
To support the work of the Tennessee Historical Records Advisory Board, including two regional coordinators meeting, the Tennessee Archives Institutes, and a statewide regrants program.

Utah State Archives and Records Services
Salt Lake City, UT                                   $35,000
To support the work of the Utah Historical Records Advisory Board, including support for a circuit rider archivist, and a statewide regrants program.

Library of Virginia
Richmond, VA                                       $17,149
To support the work of the Virginia Historical Records Advisory Board, including travel stipends and tuition costs for statewide archives workshops.

Washington Office of the Secretary of State
Olympia, WA                                         $40,000
To support the work of the Washington State Historical Records Advisory Board, including a statewide regrants program.

Wyoming Department of State Parks
  and Cultural Resources
Cheyenne, WY                                       $35,000
To support the work of the Wyoming Historical Records Advisory Board, including a statewide regrants program.

ARCHIVES-BASIC PROCESSING
Grants to reveal hidden collections in archives and to create archives programs.

City of Boston
Boston, MA                                           $91,604
A two-year project to consolidate the city’s archival records in one location and establish procedures for the systematic transfer of records from government offices to the city archives.

DIGITIZATION
Grants for digitizing entire archival collections of historical importance.

Georgia State University
Atlanta, GA                                            $90,102
The PATCO Records Digitization Project.
A 20-month project to digitize eight series—approximately 179,000 scans—of  the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) records from the union's national office.

Getty Research Institute
Los Angeles, CA                                  $100,790
Living the American Dream: Housing and Urban Development in Los Angeles, 1936-1997. 
A two year project to digitize and make available online approximately 60,500 images from the Leonard Nadel Papers and the Julius Shulman Photography Archive. 

Library of Virginia
Richmond, VA                                     $150,000
Augusta County, VA, Chancery Records, 1745-1912.
A two year project to digitize the Augusta County Chancery Court records, consisting of 460 cubic feet totally approximately 900,000 images representing 10,437 cases. .

Marist College
Poughkeepsie, NY                                $103,979
Lowell Thomas Papers Digitization Project.
A project to digitize 36,164 images, including 8,000 glass plate negatives, 6,500 lantern slides, 13,000 photographic prints, 300 stereopticon cards, 1,800 film negatives, and more items in the Graphic Materials Series in Lowell Thomas Papers, a collection drawn from the works of the 20th century American writer and broadcaster.

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Rutgers, NJ                                            $57,390
Housing Law and Policy Digital Archive.
A project to digitize two collections of materials, totaling 94,000 pages, in the areas of public housing law and urban history.

University of Illinois, Chicago
Chicago, IL                                            $47,099
Chicago: Photographic Images of Change.
A two year project to digitize approximately 30,275 photographs of historic Chicago sites, streets, neighborhoods and buildings contained within the James S. Parker collection (1900-2003) and the Chicago Photographic collection (ca. 1890-1970). 

University of North Texas
Denton, TX                                           $30,509
The Civil War and Reconstruction.
Aone year project to digitize and make available online a group of eight 19th century collections totaling 22,412 pages.  The records span from 1823-1919, but the bulk of the records date from the period of the Civil War and Reconstruction.

ELECTRONIC RECORDS
Grants to help start-up electronic records programs or assist in the preservation of electronic records.

Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences
Brooklyn, NY                                        $74,521
An eighteen month project to survey the Brooklyn Museum of Art’s electronic records; develop practical policies and procedures for managing selected areas of electronic records; and to initiate a training program for Museum staff on managing their electronic records.

Georgia Office of Secretary of State
Morrow, GA                                        $157,986
A two year project of the Georgia Archives, in partnership with the University of Georgia Carl Vinson Institute for Government’s Information Technology Outreach Services, Clayton State University, Southern Polytechnic State University, and the Georgia Geographic Information Systems Coordinating Committee to develop and implement a preservation methodology for digital geospatial data, specifically for TIGER/Line files.

New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival
New Orleans, LA                                   $21,500
A two year project to create a comprehensive plan and increase the capacity of the Festival Archive to create an Electronic Records Archive.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
These projects improve the training and education of professionals in the archival and historical publishing communities.

Association for Documentary Editing
Charlottesville, VA                                $251,796
A three-year project to substantially update and offer the Institute for Historical Editing and to develop and offer new advanced seminars for documentary editors in the digital age.

PUBLISHING HISTORICAL RECORDS –Colonial and Early National Period
These projects document major historical figures, and important eras and social movements during the colonial and early national period of the United States (up to 1820).

College of William & Mary
Williamsburg, VA                                   $25,000
To support a selective edition of The Charles Carroll of Carrollton Papers, member of the Continental Congress and U.S. Senator from Maryland in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Columbia University
New York, NY                         $162,276
To support a selective edition of The Papers of John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, co-author of the Federalist Papers, and statesman.
 
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA                                            $90,282
To support a selective online edition of The Papers of the War Department, 1784-1800.

George Washington University
Washington, DC                                  $226,048
To support a selective edition of The Documentary History of the First Federal Congress, 1789-1791.

Massachusetts Historical Society
Boston, MA                                         $185,307
To support a comprehensive edition of The Papers of John Adams.

Princeton University
Princeton, NJ                                       $168,872
To support a comprehensive edition of The Papers of Thomas Jefferson.

University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ                                           $63,580
To support the editing of Documentary Relations of the Southwest project’s The O’odham-Pee Posh Documentary History, a volume of the military activities and policies on the northern frontier of Spain’s North American colonies, particularly the O’odham and Pee Posh Native American tribal communities.

University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA                                $169,425
To support a comprehensive edition of The Papers of George Washington.

University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA                                $146,154
To support a comprehensive edition of The Papers of James Madison.

University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA                                  $66,937
To support the Dolley Madison Digital Edition, first Lady, and center of Washington society.

University of Wisconsin
Madison, WI                                        $220,000
To support a selective edition of The Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution which is documenting each of the state conventions held during 1787-88 to ratify the new U.S. Constitution.

Yale University
New Haven, CT                                   $215,130
To support a comprehensive edition of The Papers of Benjamin Franklin.

PUBLICATION SUBVENTIONS
These projects help publishers defray the printing costs of individual volumes of documentary editions.

Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, LA                                   $10,000
To publish Volume 13 of the Papers of Jefferson Davis [1871-1879].

Stanford University Press
Stanford, CA     $10,000
To publish Emma Goldman: A Documentary History of the American Years, Volume 3: Light and Shadows, 1910-1916. 

Stanford University Press
Stanford, CA                                         $10,000
To publish Emma Goldman: A Documentary History of the American Years, Volume 4:  The War Years, 1917-1919. 

University of South Carolina Research Foundation
Charleston, SC        $7,999
To publish The Sound of the Genuine: The Papers of Howard Thurman, Volume 2 (1936-1943).

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For press information, contact the National Archives Public Affairs Staff at (202) 357-5300.

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