National Archives Awards $2.2 Million in Grants for Historical Records Projects
Press Release · Monday, February 9, 2015

Washington, DC

Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero today awarded 35 grants and one cooperative agreement totaling $2,186,024 to projects being undertaken in 27 states, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the District of Columbia. The National Archives grants program is carried out through the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC). A complete list of new grants is online.

Publishing grants totaling nearly $960,000 went to eight publishing projects from the U.S. Colonial and Early National Period: the papers of Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, James Madison, Dolley Madison, John Jay, the Documentary History of the Ratification of the U.S. Constitution, and the Documentary History of the First Federal Congress. The Commission also funded its ongoing cooperative agreement with the University of Virginia to support Founders Online (http://founders.archives.gov), which provides free online access to the papers of the United States of America’s founders.

Grants totaling nearly $527,000 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.

Access to Historical Records grants, totaling over $550,000, went to seven projects to digitize the records of the Atlas Rocket program at the San Diego Air and Space Museum; to process four large photograph collections documenting Colorado and the American West; to provide online access to the records of the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music; to digitize audio recordings from the Women’s Overseas Service League; to digitize 2,200 audio recordings from 20th-century writers in the American Public Media Archive; to expand access to 418 archival collections of the Jewish Theological Seminary; and to process the records of New York City’s Almshouse in 19th century/early 20th century.

Three new people joined the Commission: Naomi Nelson, appointed by President Barack Obama, the Associate Librarian at Duke University; Kaye Lanning Minchew, Director of the Troup County (GA) Archives, representing the National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators; and W. Eric Emerson, Director of the South Carolina Department of Archives and History, representing the American Association for State and Local History.

The Archivist of the United States is the Chairman of the 15-member Commission, which includes representatives from all three branches of the Federal Government as well as the leading archival and historical professional associations. Kathleen Williams is the Executive Director.

Established in 1934 with the National Archives, the NHPRC has awarded nearly 5,000 grants for preserving, publishing, and providing access to the nation’s historical documents.

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