National Archives Grants -- November 2021
PUBLISHING HISTORICAL RECORDS
For projects that document major historical figures, and important eras and social movements in the history of the nation.
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 publish Volume 2 of the Bill of Rights series and advance editorial work on Volumes 3 and 4. Additionally, the project will work with the University of Wisconsin Libraries Digital Collections Center (UWDCC) to add supplementary documents for two additional states to its digital collections, and continue its educational outreach programing. (PD-103330)
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 establish authoritative transcriptions for 600 documents; add 200 newly transcribed and double-proofed documents; and publish 400 fully-annotated and fact-checked documents to its digital edition. Working with a selection of ~100 CWGK documents, project staff also will develop interpretive resources for researchers and students in African American history. (PD-103357)
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 commence annotation work for Volume 4 (1956-1959); complete transcription and partial collation of Roosevelt’s memoir, On My Own, to be included in Volume 5 (1960-1962); and complete document search in the FDR Library’s Financial Record Series.(PD-103359)
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 publish Adams Family Correspondence, Volume 16; complete document selection for Volume 17; complete all collation and annotation work, procure illustrations, and begin critical read for Papers of John Adams Volume 22; and prepare XML files for and publish 278 documents from AFC volume 14 to the Adams Papers Digital Edition. (PD-103363)
Presidential Recordings Project
Charlottesville, VA
$92,420 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 transcribe and annotate 25 hours of recorded material from the secret White House recordings for several administrations: 14 hours from the Johnson tapes, 8 hours from the Roosevelt tapes, and 3 hours from the Reagan tapes. (PD-103364)
American University
Washington, DC
$77,750 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 locate, image, and accession an additional 200 letters, complete canvassing, selection, transcription, and first-pass verification for all Volume 1 (1844-1848) documents; and complete 100% of second-pass proofreading and 50% of annotation for 200 letters. (PD-103367)
University of Maryland
College Park, MD
$65,698 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. The documents are drawn 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. During the grant period, staff will advance editorial work on an additional selection of 30 documents, develop and improve its website’s functionality, and expand its network of collaborating scholars. (PD-103372)
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA
$147,967 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. During the proposed grant period, staff will continue its editorial work on Series 1: Articles and Speeches, and continue document selection for The Essential Julian Bond, Volume One. (PD103374)
Northeastern University
Boston, MA
$160,000 to support a project to edit and publish as a digital edition project, Cherokees Writing the Keetoowah Way. Building on its Digital Archive of American Indian Languages Perseverance (DAILP) project, the editorial team will create an online environment for transcribing, translating, and contextualizing historical documents written using the Cherokee syllabary, a set of written characters representing syllables and serving the purpose of an alphabet. During this initial grant period, the DAILP team and its community partners will establish base texts for, annotate, contextualize, and publish 60 documents; complete and publish teaching materials; complete initial wireframing, navigation, and additional website enhancements; and identify necessary tool improvements. (PD-103375)
NHPRC-MELLON Start-Up Grants for Collaborative Digital Editions
in African American, Asian American, Hispanic American, and Native American History
These new planning projects are designed to foster collaboration and broaden participation in the production and publication of historical and scholarly digital editions. This program was made possible by funding provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
University of Wisconsin
Madison, WI
$120,000 to support planning for ¡Presente!: Documenting Latinx History in Wisconsin through a Collaborative Digital Edition. The University of Wisconsin, in partnership with the Wisconsin Latinx History Collective and the Wisconsin Historical Society, are developing a collaborative digital edition on the Latinx community within Wisconsin. Drawing on a variety of primary sources, this open-access edition aims to document the many voices and experiences of Latinx communities in Wisconsin from the mid-19th century to the present. (PL-103343)
Japanese American Cultural & Community Center
Los Angeles, CA
$120,000 to support planning for The Issei Poetry Collection Digital Edition. This project proposes to make accessible previously unpublished Issei (first generation immigrant) Japanese American poetry in the collections of the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center. The collection is a trove of untranslated writings from the late 19th century up to about 1940 produced by immigrants to metropolitan Los Angeles. The proposed edition documents their lives and challenges prior to World War II and the distinctive Japanese American aesthetic that developed. (PL103350)
Clemson University
Clemson, SC
$120,000 to support planning for Wičhóoyake kiη aglí—They Bring the Stories Back: Connecting Lakota Wild West Performers to Pine Ridge Community Histories. Clemson University, Oglala Lakota College, and Woksape Tipi Library and Archives are collaborating to develop a digital edition documenting the role of Oglala Lakota tribal members’ participation and commercial success in “Wild West” performances beginning in 1885. Planning will explore goals and processes for digitizing a variety of primary sources (texts, images, oral histories, etc.) and how best to engage Lakota communities and a wider public in documenting Lakota arts and culture, its legacy in the broader American culture, and its use in educational curricula and public outreach. (PL-103356)
University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX
$119,326 to support planning for The Texas Domestic Slave Trade Digital Edition. Building on work begun in 2010 to research the pre-Civil War history of slavery in Texas. The Texas Domestic Slave Trade Project, in close collaboration with the Texas Institute for the Preservation of History and Culture and Prairie View A&M University, will engage in a period of conceptual and technical planning to develop a digital edition focused on individual stories derived from a variety of primary sources (census records, manuscript collections, runaway slave advertisements, etc.). (PL-103378)
Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD
$120,000 to support planning for Kinship and Longing: Keywords for Black Louisiana. The proposed collaboration involves scholars and graduate students based at Johns Hopkins, Tulane, Notre Dame, and the University of Texas-El Paso to plan for and develop a digital edition based on some 200,000 French and Spanish colonial records (1714-1803) documenting enslaved and free people of African descent in Louisiana. The planning team seeks to build a selective, open source, searchable edition, including some 50,000 transcribed and translated documents and another 100,000 abstracts to provide a better understanding of the collection and make it available to scholars, genealogists, students, and the general public. (PL-103381)
Japanese Cultural Community Center of Northern California
San Francisco, CA
$118,440 to support planning for The Yokohama Specie Bank Collaborative Digital Edition. In collaboration with Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, the Center seeks to develop and make accessible documents and financial records drawn primarily from the Yokohama Specie Bank Collection. As the primary bank servicing the early Japanese immigrant community, these records promise to illuminate unknown aspects of the Japanese immigrant experience in the San Francisco Bay area and beyond, including trans-Pacific migration and family dynamics, community development, and genealogy. Planning and development will engage the Japanese American descendant community in workshops and meetings, as well as scholarly research and interviews to provide multi-generational context to materials from the early 20th century to present. (PL-103385)
STATE BOARDS
For projects that strengthen the nation's archival network through activities undertaken by state historical records advisory boards.
Ohio Historical Society
Columbus, OH
$36,540 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. (RC-103329)
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 and Archives Month, regional archives fundamentals workshops, a Circuit Rider Archivist program, and a new strategic plan. (RC-103331)
University of Georgia
Athens, GA
$80,000 to support the Georgia Historical Records Advisory Council, including a regrants program to repositories in underserved areas, scholarships to the Georgia Archives Institute, preservation training workshops, an awards program for outstanding work in preservation, and production of materials for Archives Month. (RC-103332)
Michigan Department of Natural Resources
Lansing, MI
$39,900 to support the Michigan Historical Records Advisory Board’s Visiting Archivist program, which will conduct baseline assessments of three local history institutions that will help identify and prioritize opportunities and challenges, create new or updated collection policies, develop or revise disaster preparedness plans, complete short-term projects, and identify scalable support models that can be utilized by other local history institutions. (RC-103333)
North Carolina Department of Natural & Cultural Resources
Raleigh, NC
$39,232 to support the North Carolina Historical Records Advisory Board’s America250 project, including in-person training events on oral history, community scanning events, developing local programs, online training modules, oral history collection stations, an online directory of primary sources related to America250 in North Carolina, a DIY exhibit for organizations and schools, Traveling Archivist Program site visits, and up to 20 professional development scholarships. (RC-103334)
Kansas Historical Foundation, Inc.
Topeka, KS
$54,320 to support the Kansas Historical Records Advisory Board, including a regrant program to enhance online access to historical records, promotion of Archives Month and Electronic Records Day, hosting vendor tables at professional and avocational meetings, and awarding scholarships for archival educational offerings. (RC-103336)
State Historical Society of Iowa
Iowa City, IA
$8,034 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, and developing a new strategic plan. (RC-103338)
Colorado Department of Personnel and Administration
Denver, CO
$40,000 to support the Colorado Historical Records Advisory Board, including a regrant program, scholarships for archival training, and workshops focusing on the preservation of, and access to, historical records. (RC-103344)
Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records
Phoenix, AZ
$64,228 to support the Arizona Historical Records Advisory Board, including a regrant program, an annual statewide Arizona Archives Summit, promotion of Archives Month, workshops on the basics of archives, disaster preparedness, and risk assessment, and work with five archival institutions to carry out a Professional Archivist Development program. (RC-103351)
South Carolina Department of Archives and History
Columbia, SC
$80,000 to support the South Carolina Historical Records Advisory Board, including a regrant program for projects that focus on education, program enhancement, preservation, or digital access; virtual information sessions about the program; and presentations about the work of the South Carolina Board at two statewide conferences. (RC-103353)
Connecticut State Library
Hartford, CT
$79,970 to support the Connecticut Historical Records Advisory Board initiative supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion in Connecticut’s cultural heritage institutions, including a Traveling Archivist Regrant Program to support site visits that address the archives needs of African American churches, subject guides of BIPOC collections and items, diversity training, a three-part webinar series on diversity and language in archival description, and continued support of Connecticut History Day and Archives Month. (RC-103365)
Vermont State Archives and Records Administration
Montpelier, VT
$6,231 to support the Vermont Historical Records Advisory Board, including travel for staff members of the Vermont Historical Records Program to conduct site visits and attend workshops, meetings, and conferences, and for staff training. (RC-103366)
Wisconsin Historical Society
Madison, WI
$42,956 to support the Wisconsin Historical Records Advisory Board, including sponsorship of the Governor’s Archives Awards, six professional development scholarships, two archival-themed sessions each year at the statewide Local History and Historic Preservation Conference, two digitization workshops for local history practitioners in partnership with Wisconsin Library Services, and a new strategic plan for 2023-2028. (RC-103371)
Texas State Library and Archives Commission
Austin, TX
$39,824 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, registration for up to 30 persons for each of three Digital Archives Specialist webinars, three training workshops in West Texas, the Panhandle, and the Rio Grande Valley, attendance at the Austin, Houston, and Dallas-Fort Worth Archives Bazaars, and awards for National History Day and Archival Excellence. (RC-103376)
Idaho State Historical Society
Boise, ID
$15,000 to support the Idaho Historical Records Advisory Board, including a regrant program and a new marketing strategy targeting additional audiences for the board’s regrant program. (RC-103377)
State Historical Society of North Dakota
Bismarck, ND
$12,904 to support the North Dakota Historical Records Advisory Board, including a program to identify and promote primary source materials throughout the state that relate to National History Day themes and create and publish bibliographies of those sources and distribute them to teachers. (RC-103380)
Wyoming Department of State Parks and Cultural Resources
Cheyenne, WY
$39,762 to support the Wyoming Historical Records Advisory Board, including a project to create a network of archival repositories and assess the needs of smaller archival repositories in the state. The board will award up to two regrants for archival projects, conduct at least two workshops related to the preservation of and access to historical records, do a needs assessment survey, and publish an online directory of Wyoming’s historical records repositories. (RC-103382)
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.
Planning Grants
North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources
Raleigh, NC
$16,500 to support a planning grant for a collaborative directed by the North Carolina African American Heritage Commission (AAHC) in close partnership with the State Archives of North Carolina and the State Library of North Carolina. Memory Quilt: Stitching Together African American Archival Collections Across North Carolina aims to hold regional meetings and design a survey to capture an overview of the breadth and depth of African American archival materials in North Carolina. (RJ-103361)
City of Belen
Belen, NM
$11,125 to support a planning grant for a collaborative of the Belen Public Library, the Los Lunas Public Library, the Valencia County Historical Society, and other organizations interested in preserving the historical records of the diverse and often underrepresented residents of largely rural Valencia County. The members of this Collaborative will work together to compare how they manage their repositories and then create policies, finding aids, and other materials to help them work together in the future. (RJ-103349)
Vermont Historical Society
Barre, VT
$25,000 to support a planning grant for a collaborative of the Vermont Historical Society, the Vermont Historical Records Program (VHRP) of the Vermont State Archives & Records Administration, and the Vermont Department of Libraries for a centralized digital platform that will provide access to non-governmental collections of records related to Vermont history and culture. (RJ-103341)
Missouri Humanities Council
St. Charles, MO
$20,000 to support a planning grant for a collaborative, led by the Missouri Association for Museums and Archives, to identify and make available records documenting Missouri’s Native American history. Other collaborative members include the Missouri Humanities Council, the Kansas City Public Library, and the Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian Studies at Washington University in St. Louis. (RJ-103337)
Implementation Grants
Connecticut League of History Organizations
New Britain, CT
$99,980 to support a project to enhance the capabilities of Connecticut Collections (CTCo), an open-source, online resource tool managed by the Connecticut League of History Organizations utilized by a statewide collaborative of 26 museums, historical societies, libraries, schools, and other cultural heritage organizations. As part of the project, the collaborative intends to recruit up to six new CTCo members. (RJ-103384)
Urban Archive, Inc.
New York, NY
$70,000 to support a project that will refine tools to improve and expand Urban Archive’s digital platform for importing, storing, and managing archival collections for public access. Urban Archive, Inc., is a technology nonprofit that has worked with 70 partner organizations across Albany, Newburgh, and New York City to map and share local history collections. (RJ-103354)
Association of Moving Image Archivists
Hollywood, CA
$99,344 to support the Community Archiving Workshop of the Association of Moving Image Archivists in partnership with Wisconsin Library Services to develop digital readiness tools for under-served organizations with audiovisual collections (film, video, and audio recordings). The project will survey twelve partner organizations about their digital readiness and provide each with a customized Pathway to Digital Readiness Report. (RJ-103352).
Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services
Dearborn, MI
$69,670 to support the Arab American Archives Collaborative’s project to develop an enhanced website for an existing database of Arab American archival collections identified during an NHPRC planning project. The collaborative, organized by the Arab American National Museum, also intends to offer family history preservation training via the Moise A. Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies at North Carolina State University and the Houston Metropolitan Research Center. (RJ-103346)
MAJOR INITIATIVES
For projects that will significantly improve public discovery and use of major historical records collections.
Norman B. Leventhal Map and Education Center
Boston, MA
$229,048 to support a two-year project, in partnership with 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. (RM-103387)
Brown University
Providence, RI
$250,000 to support a two-year project called “Divided America,” which will digitize, and make available online, approximately 238,000 pages of material from small- to medium-sized issue-focused conservative groups between 1948 and 1999 and make them accessible through the Brown Digital Repository. (RM-103389)
History Colorado
Denver, CO
$250,696 to support a two-year project to process and describe 253 linear feet of the Mazzulla Collection and digitize approximately 50,000 items from the collection. Fred Milo Mazzulla (1903-1981) was born in Trinidad, Colorado to Italian immigrants and became an amateur western historian, photographer, and writer, amassing a collection of more than 250,000 photographic images of the American West. (RM-103390)