National Archives to Award $3 Million for Historical Records Projects
Press Release · Friday, November 19, 2021

Washington, DC

Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero will award 36 grants totaling $2,975,339 for historical records projects in 27 states and the District of Columbia, pending appropriations of a final budget for FY 2022 (complete list online).  The National Archives grants program is carried out through the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC). 

The NHPRC also approved six projects, with $717,766 in funding from the Mellon Foundation, for Start-Up Grants for Collaborative Digital Editions in African American, Asian American, Hispanic American, and Native American History. Learn more about this initiative to expand cultural diversity in American history here. 

• ¡Presente!: Documenting Latinx History in Wisconsin at the University of Wisconsin
• Los Angeles Issei Poetry Collection Digital Edition at the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center
• Wičhóoyake kiη aglí—They Bring the Stories Back: Connecting Lakota Wild West Performers to Pine Ridge Community Histories at Clemson University
• The Texas Domestic Slave Trade Digital Edition at the University of Texas at Austin
• Kinship and Longing: Keywords for Black Louisiana at Johns Hopkins University
• The Yokohama Specie Bank Collaborative Digital Edition at the Japanese Cultural Community Center of Northern California

Publishing Historical Records of major figures, eras and social movements in U.S. history:

• John Adams and Family Papers
• Papers of Eleanor Roosevelt
• Presidential Recordings Project
• Civil War Governors of Kentucky Digital Edition
• Correspondence of Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore
• Documentary History of the Ratification of the U.S. Constitution & Adoption of the Bill of Rights
• Slavery, Law, and Power: Struggles over Justice and Democracy in the Anglo-Atlantic World
• The Papers of Julian Bond
• Cherokees Writing the Keetoowah Way as part of the Digital Archive of American Indian Languages Perseverance project

Major Initiatives Program to improve public discovery and use of major collections:   

• A partnership at the Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center at Boston Public Library and the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington at Mount Vernon to create the ARGO (American Revolutionary Geographies Online) portal of geographic depictions of North America (1750 -1800) curated from dozens of repositories
• Brown University to digitize and make available online 238,000 pages from small- to medium-sized issue-focused conservative political groups (1948 and 1999)
• History Colorado to process 253 linear feet and digitize 50,000 items from the Fred Milo Mazzulla (1903-1981) photography collection.

Archives Collaboratives for new partnerships to increase public access to historical records: 

• Planning grants: Valencia (NM) County Archival Collaborative, Memory Quilt project (NC),  Native American Perspectives (MO), and an online VT statewide collections platform.
• Implementation grants:  Arab American Archives Collaborative, Association of Moving Image Archivists, Connecticut Collections Collaborative, and New York City’s Urban Archive.
• State Board grants: 17 grants for state historical records advisory boards to assist smaller archives, and provide workshops, educational tools, and  archival services. 

The National Archives National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) supports projects that promote access to America's historical records to encourage understanding of our democracy, history, and culture. The 15-member Commission includes representatives from all three branches of the Federal government as well as the leading archival and historical professional associations. Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero is the Chairman, and Christopher Eck is the Executive Director. Since it was established in 1934 along with the National Archives, the NHPRC has awarded 5,000 grants for preserving, publishing, and providing access to the nation’s historical documents.