National Archives Grants -- November 2020
MAJOR INITIATIVES
For projects that will significantly improve public discovery and use of major historical records collections.
Puerto Rico Public Broadcasting Corporation
San Juan, PR $349,839
To support a project, in collaboration with the American Archive of Public Broadcasting, to digitize and make available online 2,709 hours of radio broadcasts from public radio station WIPR, and make available an additional 5,000 hours of already-digitized broadcasts, dating since 1949. The project will also make available Spanish and English transcripts of the broadcasts, and encourage the public to participate in correcting the Spanish transcriptions. (RM103143-21)
Museum of Chinese in America
New York, NY $150,000
To support a project to digitize and make available 150 oral histories drawn from 11 oral history collections: Waves of Identity, 8th Avenue in Sunset Park, Chino-Latino interviews, Performing Chinese America, 9/11 Chinatown documentation, tales of gentrification in Chinatown, Chinese Americans designers, stories of Chinese Americans food and identity and the Chinese American Diaspora. These audio and video recordings document a wide range of the lived experiences of Chinese Americans across the United States. (RM103142-21)
Washington State Archives
Olympia, WA $90,000
To support a project to digitize the eastern division civil, criminal, probate, admiralty, and equity cases from the Washington Territory Court era (1853-1889). Plaintiffs and defendants represent all sectors of society in Eastern Washington from prominent citizens to lesser-known residents, and include records on divorce, vigilante justice, and public petitions. After digitization and online publication, the project will make the records available for citizen archivists to transcribe via the Scribe application. (RM103141-21)
Johnson C. Smith College
Charlotte, NC $194,938
To support a collaborative project with partners from Special Collections at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and Duke University’s Digital Humanities Lab to create an online exhibit on the effects of urban renewal in African American neighborhoods in Charlotte, North Carolina. The partners will digitize and provide contextualization of documents and other records in an augmented reality digital environment. The project aims to trace the impact of urban renewal strategies that resulted in “lost” communities. Users will learn about segregation, the Civil Rights Movement, the Fair Housing Act, Black entrepreneurship, social and voluntary club life, leadership, Black families and institutions. (RM103139-21)
Ohio Historical Society
Columbus, OH $107,058
To support a project to reprocess and catalog the 226 linear feet of the Warren G. Harding Papers and provide a comprehensive finding aid. The papers document the life (1865-1923) of the 29th President of the United States, from his years in the newspaper business, time in the Senate, the 1920 presidential campaign, and his presidency (1921-23). They include papers of his wife, Florence Harding. (RM10315-21)
ACCESS TO HISTORICAL RECORDS
For projects that ensure online public discovery and use of historical records collections.
Willamette University
Salem, OR $98,075
To support an 18-month project to arrange, rehouse, and describe 298 linear feet of unprocessed materials from the records of Oregon’s long-serving statesman, U.S. Senator Mark O. Hatfield (R-OR, 1967-1997). The project will create and publish series descriptions, scope and content notes, and folder level listings for the Media and Constituent Services series within the broader Hatfield collection’s finding aid. (RH103030-21)
PUBLISHING HISTORICAL RECORDS
For projects that document major historical figures, and important eras and social movements in the history of the nation.
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA $89,315
To support the Presidential Recordings project at the Miller Center of Public Affairs to transcribe, annotate, and publish conversations from the nearly 5,000 hours of secret presidential recordings made during the Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon administrations. During the grant period, the editors will prepare an additional 263 conversations drawn from Lyndon Johnson’s secret White House recordings related to the Election of 1964. These final selections cover the period from early November 1964 through mid-January 1965. (PD103101-21)
University of Wisconsin
Madison, WI $160,000
To support a project to edit and publish The Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution and the Adoption of the Bill of Rights. During the grant year, editors will complete all work related to Bill of Rights series Volumes 2 and 3; add two additional volumes of supplementary documents to the UW-Madison Libraries Digital Collections; and publish the two-volume cumulative index (Volumes 35 and 36 of the DHRC series). (PD103104-21)
Massachusetts Historical Society
Boston, MA $160,000
To support a project to edit The Adams Papers—a selective edition of the papers of John Adams and the Adams Family. During the proposed grant period, editorial staff will advance editorial work on Volume 16 of the Adams Family Correspondence; complete all remaining editorial work and publish Volume 21 of the Papers of John Adams; commence work on Volume 22, and prepare XML files for and publish 341 documents fromVolume 19 to the Adams Papers Digital Edition. (PD103106-21)
Kentucky Historical Society
Frankfort, KY $91,240
To support a project to edit and publish the Civil War Governors of Kentucky Digital Documentary Edition. During the proposed grant period, project staff will perform tandem proofing for an additional 1,000 documents, and annotate, fact-check, and publish an additional 450 documents on the project’s digital edition website. (PD103111-21)
Research Foundation for SUNY Old Westbury
Albany, NY $125,127
To support a project to edit the Papers of Clarence Mitchell, Jr. An American labor and civil rights activist and Director of the NAACP’s Washington Bureau, Mitchell served as the NAACP’s chief lobbyist for nearly 30 years. During the proposed grant period, the Mitchell Papers project will publish Volume 5 (1955-1957) and Volume 6 (1958-1960), and refocus its editorial work on print edition Volume 8 (1965-1968). Project partners at the UVA Center for Digital Editing will complete the digital conversion of the first four volumes (documenting the years 1942-1954) for publication in the Clarence Mitchell Jr. Digital Edition. (PD103118-21)
American University
Washington, DC $59,400
To support a 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 year, the project will hire and train new staff, refine its document control database and metadata standards, advance editorial work on an additional 1,200 letters, and submit to Newfound Press the first series of 100 proofread transcriptions. (PD103123-21)
George Washington University
Washington, DC $160,000
To support a project to edit and publish the Eleanor Roosevelt Papers. During the proposed grant period, editorial staff will publish Volume 3 (1953-1955) of the print edition, continue editorial work on Volume 4 (1956-1959) and Volume 5 (1960-1962), and transcribe and publish at least 30 additional sound-recording transcripts to the Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Audio Archive. (PD103125-21)
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA $115,142
To support a project to edit and publish the Papers of Julian Bond. A pioneering voice in American politics for some five decades, Julian Bond (1940-2015) first distinguished himself as a leading activist and member of the Committee on Appeal for Human Rights and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. He served 20 years as a Georgia representative, was president of the Southern Poverty Law Center and chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and taught at American University, Harvard University, and the University of Virginia. The project intends to publish a freely available digital edition of Bond’s speeches, articles, audiovisual materials, correspondence, and other materials from the University of Virginia’s Julian Bond Collection, as well as a selective, three-volume print edition titled The Essential Julian Bond. (PD103116-21)
University of Nebraska
Lincoln, NE $152,648
To support a project to edit and publish The Complete Correspondence of Charles W. Chesnutt (1858-1932), a pioneering African American writer, lawyer, and voting rights activist. Upon completion, this comprehensive digital archive will consist of transcriptions of all incoming and outgoing letters (estimated at 1,250 letters), including all drafts, and digitized images of the original documents. During the proposed grant year, project staff will create a catalog of all of Chesnutt’s known correspondence and drafts; secure high-resolution digital scans for all known correspondence from 1883-1899; and publish 200 transcribed and annotated letters with their respective images to the The Charles Chesnutt Digital Archive. (PD103127-21)
University of Maryland
College Park, MD $41,110
To support a project to edit and publish Slavery, Law, and Power: Struggles over Justice and Democracy in the Anglo-Atlantic World, a newly conceived, selective edition that aims to provide intellectual access to essential, geographically-distant, and largely inaccessible documents that highlight the importance of imperial power and authoritarian ideologies to the origins of American slavery in the English colonies. The documents are draw from repositories in the U.S. and abroad, including the United Kingdom, Europe, and Barbados and focus on the British imperial and ideological origins of North American slavery and politics in the 17th and 18th centuries. This selective edition aims to transcribe, annotate, and publish an initial set of 30 documents that allow researchers, students, and the public to explore “contests and struggles that laid the basis for theories and practices of (limited) democracy” associated with the American Founding Era. (PD103128-21)
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.
Northern Michigan University
Marquette, MI $99,918
To support a collaborative, regional digital preservation and access network for the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, a partnership of Northern Michigan University, Michigan Technological University, and Lake Superior State University to expand resources and services and build an online community through UPLINK, designed to assist archival repositories in the Upper Peninsula identify, collect, and preserve the region’s documentary heritage. (RJ103115-21)
STATE BOARDS
For projects that strengthen the nation's archival network through activities undertaken by state historical records advisory boards.
New Mexico Commission of Public Records
Santa Fe, NM $80,000
To support the New Mexico Historical Records Advisory Board, including a regrant programs for local archives, a Traveling Archivist program, and at least two workshops on basic records, information, and archival management. (RC103099-21)
Ohio Historical Society
Columbus, OH $27,120
To support the Ohio Historical Records Advisory Board, including a regrant program, History Day project awards, the Archives Achievement Award, the Ohio Citizen Archivist Award, and provide professional development scholarships, and collaborate with the Ohio Electronic Records Committee to develop online electronic records education. (RC103100-21)
Tennessee State Library and Archives
Nashville, TN $73,000
To support the Tennessee Historical Records Advisory Board, including a regrants program, the Tennessee Archives Institute, and scholarships and enrollment in online workshops and webinars, and a pilot Junior Archivist Camp for up to 15 children and two counselors. (RC103102-21)
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, Family History Day, two regional grant writing and archives fundamental workshops, and a Circuit Rider Archivist program. (RC103103-21)
Idaho State Historical Society
Boise, ID $23,700
To support the Idaho Historical Records Advisory Board, including a regrant program and four best practice workshops in rural communities to educate citizens about the proper care for their collections. (RC103105-21)
Colorado Department of Personnel and Administration
Denver, CO $40,000
To support the Colorado Historical Records Advisory Board, including a regrant program focused on digital access to collections, scholarships for archival training, and workshops focusing on the preservation of, and access to, historical records. (RC103107-21)
Massachusetts Secretary of State
Boston, MA $80,000
To support the Massachusetts Historical Records Advisory Board, including the Roving Archivist program providing assessments to 24 new institutions, a Field Fellowship program, a collaborative forum with the Massachusetts History Alliance and support of its Resource Commons. (RC103108-21)
Executive Office of the State of Rhode Island
Providence, RI $12,000
To support the Rhode Island Historical Records Advisory Board, including a scholarship program for archival training and four workshops to address the preservation of, and access to, historical records. (RC103109-21)
University of Georgia
Athens, GA $40,000
To support the Georgia Historical Records Advisory Council, including a regrants program to local repositories, a scholarship to the Georgia Archives Institute, four preservation training workshops, an awards program for outstanding work in preservation, and production of materials for Archives Month. (RC103110-21)
South Carolina Department of Archives and History
Columbia, SC $6,500
To support the South Carolina Historical Records Advisory Board, including training sessions geared toward the needs of Historically Black Colleges and Universities and other African American records repositories to be made available in person and online. (RC103112-21)
Pennsylvania Heritage Foundation
Harrisburg, PA $13,076
To support the Pennsylvania Historical Records Advisory Board, including the Archives Without Tears workshops, the annual Archives and Records Management Seminar, two Community Archives Initiative events, and Archives Month posters. (RC103113-21)
State Historical Society of Iowa
Iowa City, IA $3,380
To support the Iowa Historical Records Advisory Board, including training sessions for applicants and review of documentary collections applications for the state’s Historical Resource Development grants. (RC103114-21)
Montana Historical Society
Helena, MT $11,996
To support the Montana Historical Records Advisory Board, including scholarships for archival training, a workshop in conjunction with the Montana History Conference, the Montana Archivist newsletter and Archives Month poster, an Archives Blitz, and the Traveling Student Archivist program. (RC103117-21)
Texas State Library and Archives Commission
Austin, TX $35,272
To support the Texas Historical Records Advisory Board, including registration for up to 30 persons for the American Association for State and Local History’s Basics of Archives program, in-person emergency recovery classes, three training workshops in Houston and Fort Worth, attendance at the Austin, Houston, and Dallas-Fort Worth Archives Bazaars, awards for National History Day and Archival Excellence, and other events. (RC103119-21)
Michigan Department of Natural Resources
Lansing, MI $30,000
To support the Michigan Historical Records Advisory Board, including a regrants program, 20 onsite assessments of local history organizations throughout the state, Basics of Archives videos and webinars, and archival education for the Save Michigan History program. (RC103120-21)
Vermont State Archives and Records Administration
Montpelier, VT $40,000
To support the Vermont Historical Records Advisory Board, including site visits to at least 20 historical societies, a dozen workshops and training sessions, a mobile digitization unit, two records salvage workshops, and the development of a consortial digital preservation system. (RC103121-21)
Missouri Office of the Secretary of State
Jefferson City, MO $19,650
To support the Missouri Historical Records Advisory Board, including eight photograph preservation workshops and imaging events, print and distribute a photograph preservation best practices poster, conduct a records repository directory survey, and distribute a six-generation genealogical chart. (RC103124-21)
Illinois State Archives
Springfield, IL $80,000
To support the Illinois Historical Records Advisory Board, including a regrant program, Archival Professional Development Scholarships to electronic records workshops and to online courses related to digital access. (RC103126-21)
Wyoming Department of State Parks and Cultural Resources
Cheyenne, WY $48,348
To support the Wyoming Historical Records Advisory Board, including a regrants program, four workshops at locations around the state, and co-sponsor the ARMA spring seminar. (RC103129-21)