National Archives Awards $2.6 Million for Historical Records Projects
Press Release · Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Washington, DC

Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero will award 31 grants totaling $2,599,400 to projects being undertaken in 27 states, pending appropriations of a final budget for FY 2018. The National Archives grants program is carried out through the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC). A complete list of grants is located here.

A new program, Access to Historical Records: Major Initiatives, designed to assist archives and historical records repositories collaborate and take on large-scale challenges, awarded $1,082,147 to five projects:

• Moving Image Preservation of Puget Sound to collaborate with four major institutions to process and digitize over 1,200 videotapes documenting the region’s history and culture; 
• the University of New Orleans collaborate with Cornell University and the University of Alabama to digitize and provide online access to at least 40,000 fugitive slave advertisements;
• the University of Georgia to digitize and publish online approximately 4,000 hours of public radio and televisions submitted for the Peabody Awards;
• the University of California, Merced to digitize approximately 180,000 pages and 2,000 photographs from the University of California Cooperative Extension from 20 county offices;
• and California State University, Dominguez Hills to digitize 10,400 archival records related to Japanese-American history with an emphasis on World War II interment and post-war history from eight institutions.

Publishing grants totaling $820,050 went to six publishing projects, including the papers of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and the Adams Family, Eleanor Roosevelt, Presidential Recordings, Clarence Mitchell, Jr., and the Documentary History of the Ratification of the U.S. Constitution and Adoption of the Bill of Rights.

Grants totaling $697,203 went for State Board Programming grants to enable 20 state historical records advisory boards to carry out their mission to support archival education and strengthen the nation’s archival network.

The Commission also announced the recruitment of a new Executive Director. A full job announcement is available online. The 15-member Commission includes representatives from all three branches of the Federal government as well as the leading archival and historical professional associations. The Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero is its Chairman, and Maria Stanwich is the Acting Executive Director. Established in 1934 with the National Archives, the NHPRC has awarded 5,000 grants for preserving, publishing, and providing access to the nation’s historical documents.