Press/Journalists

Commission Recommends $3.9 Million in Grants for Documentary Editing and Archival Projects
Press Release · Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Washington, DC

Contact: Keith Donohue
keith.donohue@nara.gov
202-357-5365
NHPRC online

At its Spring meeting, the National Historical Publications and Records Commission recommended to the Archivist of the United States 45 grants of $3,885,856 for projects in 24 states and the District of Columbia.  Ranging from records of five state agencies in Montana to the records related to the timber industry in Southern Mississippi, these grants represent the breadth of historical records preservation and access across the United States.

Grants totaling $1.8 million were recommended for 19 archival projects.  A dozen went to basic projects, including a project to process records of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska; the records of the Kentucky Folklife Program; and the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania.  Seven detailed processing projects support the records of the Michigan’s Copper County region, southern Mississippi’s timber industry, and Vermont court records stretching back to the 18th century.

Grants totaling $1.8 million were recommended for 17 documentary editing projects—from a digital edition of the Papers of Abraham Lincoln to the Papers of Eleanor Roosevelt.  Eight subventions were awarded to university presses to assist with the timely publication of volumes of the papers of Ulysses Grant, James Madison, and others.  A Strategies and Tools grant was awarded to the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities to create an editing and document management tool for historical documentary editions.

Kathleen Williams, Executive Director of the NHPRC, presented the grant applications and policy issues to the full Commission.  The Archivist of the United States, David Ferriero, is the Chairman of the Commission. The NHPRC is the sole federal funding agency whose only focus is the documentary heritage of the United States.  Established in 1934, it has awarded grants for preserving, publishing, and providing access to vital historical documents. 

NHPRC Recommended Grants ~ MAY 2011

STRATEGIES AND TOOLS
Projects to develop new strategies and tools that can improve the preservation, public discovery, or use of historical records.

Virginia Foundation for the Humanities
Charlottesville, VA                                $148,782
On behalf of Documents Compass, a three-year project to create a customizable database structure and interface that will aid historical documentary editors in preparing, editing, and managing their documents and files for complex publishing projects.

PUBLISHING – NEW REPUBLIC THROUGH THE MODERN ERA
Projects that document major historical figures, and important eras and social movements in the history of the nation.

George C. Marshall Foundation
Lexington, VA                                       $44,000
To support editorial work on the Papers of George Catlett Marshall, a documentary edition of the historical records of the 20th century military leader, Secretary of State, and Secretary of Defense, and creator of the Marshall Plan after World War II.   This grant will assist work on records from the years 1947 – 1950, during which Marshall served as president of the American Red Cross and Secretary of Defense.

University of Tennessee
Knoxville, TN                                        $70,280
To support editorial work on the Correspondence of James K. Polk, a selected edition of the letters to and from the 11th President of the United States.  Assisted by this award, the project will edit records from 1847, the final months of the Mexican-American War. 

William Marsh Rice University
Houston, TX                                         $75,269
To support editorial work on the Papers of Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederate States of America.  With the assistance of these funds, the project will edit records from the last decade of Davis’ life.  In these years, he sought to promote trade and also wrote a history of the Confederacy.

SUNY College at Old Westbury
Old Westbury, NY                                 $77,074
To support editorial work on the Clarence Mitchell Jr. Papers.  As director of the Washington Bureau of the NAACP, Mitchell worked to promote civil rights through legislation and executive action.  This grant will assist the editing of documents from 1955 – 1960.

University of Tennessee
Knoxville, TN                                      $120,141
To support editorial work on the Papers of Andrew Jackson. This award will enable the project to edit records from the third year of Jackson’s presidential administration.

Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation
Springfield, IL                                      $143,446
To support editorial work onthe Papers of Abraham Lincoln, an electronic documentary edition of the historical records of the 16th President of the United States.  This project is preparing a comprehensive edition that will include both images and annotated transcriptions of Lincoln’s papers.  During the period of this grant, the project will continue to accession documents from the National Archives and the Library of Congress.

Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
New Brunswick, NJ                              $133,808
To support editorial work onthe Papers of Thomas Edison, a documentary edition of the historical records of the late 19th/early 20th century American inventory.  This award will assist preparation of a comprehensive image edition of Edison’s papers and a selective transcribed and annotated edition of his papers from 1885 – 1887.

University of California, Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA                                    $79,560
To support editorial work onthe Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers.  Marcus Garvey directed the largest mass movement of African Americans.  This grant will fund work on the Garvey movement in Africa and the Caribbean.   

University of Nebraska
Lincoln, NE                                          $86,142
To support editorial work on the Walt Whitman and Reconstruction, a documentary edition of historical records as part of the online Walt Whitman Archive.  This award will assist the editing of letters written by Whitman in the Reconstruction era (1865-1871).  During these years, Whitman was working in Washington, D.C., as a government clerk; this project will also edit the documents he wrote in that capacity.

Duke University
Durham, NC                                         $75,310
To support editorial work onthe Selected Papers of Jane Addams, a documentary edition of historical records of this American recipient of the Nobel Prize, settlement worker, and leader in women’s suffrage.  With the support of this grant, the project will edit documents from the first decade of Hull House, the most famous American settlement house, known for its efforts to assist the less fortunate inhabitants of Chicago.

Ulysses S. Grant Association
Starkville, MS                                         $64,426
To support editorial work onthe Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, a documentary edition of historical records of the 18th President of the United States.  This grant will fund work on a scholarly edition of Grant’s Memoirs.

Stanford University
Stanford, CA                                        $119,743
To support editorial work onthe Martin Luther King Jr. Papers, a documentary edition of historical records of this 20th century Civil Rights leader.  Assisted by this award, the project will collect and edit records reflecting King’s participation in the Civil Rights Movement from 1961 through 1964.

New York University
New York, NY                                    $112,780
To support editorial work onthe Selected Papers of Margaret Sanger, a documentary edition of historical records of this 20th century social activist.  This grant will fund editorial work on papers relating to Sanger’s international work for birth control.

University of Maryland
College Park, MD                                 $175,845
To support editorial work onthe Freemen and Southern Society project, a documentary edition of the history of the emancipation of slaves in the United States.  This award will support work on volumes tracing Federal dealings with freedmen in the southern states.  One volume will treat the development of land and labor policies, another will document the administration of law and justice. 

Indiana University
Bloomington, IN                                   $77,125
To support editorial work onthe Frederick Douglass Papers, a documentary edition of the historical records of this 19th century African American social reformer, orator, and statesman.  Assisted by this award, the project will publish The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, the last of Douglass’ autobiographical writings, and will edit Douglass’ correspondence from the years 1853 – 1862.

University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA                                $130,000
To support editorial work onthe Presidential Recordings Project, a documentary edition of the audio recordings made by six U.S. Presidents from 1940-1973.  This grant will assist the preparation of online editions of Lyndon Johnson’s recorded conversations relating to the War on Poverty, Civil Rights, and the War in Vietnam.  It will also assist similar work on the recorded conversations from the early years of the Nixon administration.

George Washington University
Washington, DC                                  $250,000
To support editorial work onthe Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, a documentary edition of the historical records of the 20th century First Lady and human rights advocate.  Funded by this grant, the project will edit documents reflecting the former First Lady’s activities from 1949 – 1956.

 

PUBLICATION SUBVENTIONS
Grants to publishers to help defray the printing costs of individual volumes of documentary editions.

State Historical Society of Wisconsin
Madison, WI                                          $10,000
To publish Volume 25 of the Ratification of the Constitution.

State Historical Society of Wisconsin
Madison, WI                                          $10,000
To publish Volume 26 of the Ratification of the Constitution.

University of Oklahoma Press
Norman, OK$10,000
To publish Volume 3 ofThe North American Journals of Prince Maximillian of Wied. 

University of North Carolina Press
Chapel Hill, NC                                     $10,000
To publish Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation, 1861-1867: Series 3, Volume 2,
Land and Labor, 1866-1867.

Southern Illinois University
Carbondale, IL                                       $10,000
To publish Volume 32 of The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
New Brunswick, NJ                                $10,000
To publish Volume 6 of The Selected Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony

University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA                                  $10,000
To publish Volume 7 of the Presidential Series, The Papers of James Madison.

University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA                                  $10,000
To publish Volume 3 of The Papers of John Jay.

ARCHIVES-BASIC PROJECTS
Grants to reveal hidden collections in archives and to create archives programs.

Alaska Department of Education
  and Early Development
Juneau, AK                                          $109,267
A two-year project by the Alaska State Archives to process records related to the Exxon Valdez oil spill and subsequent litigation.  Staff will appraise 3,300 boxes of records and process 400-600 boxes determined to have permanent historical value.

University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI                                    $111,350
A project to process 1,661 manuscript collections and photograph albums from the William L. Clements Library concerning 18th, 19th, and 20th century persons and events.  Over two-thirds of these materials pertain to women, Native Americans, and African Americans.

Montana Historical Society
Helena, MT                                          $165,732
A two-year project to process 1,580 linear feet of records created by five state agencies, covering the period 1902-2007, and documenting topics of historical interest such as the environment, water rights, public health care, education, and transportation.

Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians
Siletz, OR                                               $31,086
A project to process Tribal records, create finding aids to the collections, implement formal accessioning procedures, and plan for selecting documents for digitization.

Kentucky Historical Society Foundation
Frankfort, KY                                        $48,275
A project to process the records of the Kentucky Folklife Program,  currently consisting of 35 analog and 370 electronic series of project documentation, video, audio and photographs. The Kentucky Folklife Program is designed to identify, document, present and conserve the Commonwealth's diverse cultural traditions, of particular interest to anthropologists and folklorists.

University of Oregon
Eugene, OR                                         $116,127
A two-year project to provide access to 14,288 linear feet of historical materials concerning the settlement and development of Oregon and the Northwest United States, housed in the University of Oregon Libraries Special Collections and University Archives.

Historical Society of
  Western Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh, PA                                        $88,738
A two-year project to process and catalog 633 collections drawn from the late 18th century to the present day which document western Pennsylvania’s business development, industrial growth, ethnic communities, race relations, arts organizations, religious groups, civic entities, and local politics.

Hebrew Union College/
  Jewish Institute of Religion
Cincinnati, OH                                       $96,104
A two-year project for its American Jewish Archives to process its backlog of historical records totaling nearly 2,000 cubic feet. The collections document the broad scope of American Jewish society—political, economic, communal, professional, philanthropic, family, and religious—through the papers and records of rabbis, synagogues, social groups, individuals, and organizations.

Baltimore Museum of Art
Baltimore, MD                                     $112,039
A 30-month project to develop and implement a records management program and process 994 cubic feet of institutional records and manuscript collections that document the formation and development of this cultural institution.  Founded in 1914, the Museum now houses more than 90,000 works of art, and it is known around the world for the Cone Collection, which includes the largest and most significant collection of works by Henri Matisse.

American Sephardi Federation
New York, NY                                      $42,866
A project to identify, survey, and document existing historical records in collections in the northeastern United States related to Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews. Sephardi Jews are those persons descended from Jews expelled from the Iberian Peninsula in the 15th century.  Mizrahi Jews are descendants from Middle Eastern and North African Jews who are commonly included among the Sephardim community.

Pepperdine University
Malibu, CA                                          $110,143
An eighteen month project to create online descriptions of 1,225 linear feet of unprocessed university archives and manuscript materials held in the Special Collections and Archives.  Founded in 1937, Pepperdine University was originally located in Los Angeles, and the records are important not only for the institution and its founding religious order, but also for students of the history of Southern California and its post World War II growth and development.

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Cold Spring Harbor, NY                        $66,361
A 15-month project to process 19 collections of institutional and personal records, dating from the 1890s through the present, which comprise the entire backlog of unprocessed collections at this not-for-profit research and education institution at the forefront of molecular biology and genetics.

ARCHIVES-DETAILED PROCESSING PROJECTS
These awards support detailed processing and preservation of collections of national significance.

Florida Department of State
Tallahassee, FL                                       $46,181
A 15-month project at the state Division of Library and Information Services to process the records of the Koreshan Unity as well as personal papers of some of its members. The Koreshan Unity was a late 19th/early 20th century religious utopian community, which began in New York and moved to Florida in 1894.

Peabody Essex Museum
Salem, MA                                             $75,692
A two-year project to process 74 manuscript collections drawn from the 18th and 19th centuries on Massachusetts history, including maritime history, notable Essex County individuals and families, volunteer militia, and Civil War campaigns.

University of Oklahoma
Norman, OK                                         $96,303
A two-year project to process and make accessible the papers of James R. Jones, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives form 1973-1987 and U.S. Ambassador to Mexico from 1993-1997. Jones served as a key figure during the Reagan era federal budget negotiations.

Vermont State Archives
  and Records Administration
Montpelier, VT                                     $118,078
A 22-month project to arrange and describe 446 cubic feet of docket books, record books, and case files created by the courts in three counties and dating from 1794 to 1945. Both criminal and civil cases are documented in this span of 150 years of records, which provide perspectives on crime and punishment, economic development, and all facets of social history.

Stanford University
Stanford, CA                                        $106,191
A project to make available the records of the STOP AIDS Project (SAP), a grassroots organization founded in San Francisco in 1985 to prevent AIDS/HIV through community-based approaches. These records document public response to this enduring world-wide health crisis, and include the project’s work with the San Francisco Department of Public Health, the State of California, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Office of National AIDS Policy.

Michigan Technological University
Houghton, MI                                      $168,394
A 24-month project to process 1,329 cubic feet of historical records from Michigan’s Copper Country region on the Upper Peninsula. Copper Country comprises four counties that experienced the United States’s first hard rock mining boom during the Industrial Revolution.

University of Southern Mississippi
Hattiesburg, MS                                    $113,198
A two-year project to preserve and increase access to materials related to the timber industry in southern Mississippi.  Three collections totaling 1,063 cubic feet will be processed, three EAD compatible finding aids, and three MARC catalog records will be made available online.

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Contact: Keith Donohue
keith.donohue@nara.gov
202-357-5365

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