National Archives Awards $4.1 Million in Grants for Documentary Editing and Archival Projects
Press Release · Monday, June 11, 2018

Washington, DC

Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero has awarded 31 grants totaling $4,093,283 for projects in 15 states. The National Archives grants program is carried out through the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC). A complete list of new grants is available online.

Providing public access to historical records is the focus of 14 projects, including a major initiative by the University of North Carolina at Greensboro to digitize nearly 10,000 slave deeds and bills of sale held by 26 counties across the state. Several project focus on collections at major institutions for documenting music and the arts, including the Country Music Hall of Fame’s audiotape recordings of historic performances; the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum’s 508 collections spanning eight decades of music history; Bethel Broadcasting’s video recordings drawn from Native-owned and –operated KYUK, documenting the Yup’ik of western Alaska; the Pacific Northwest Artists Archives at Willamette University; interviews from prominent sports figures from Arthur Ashe to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at Washington University; and Cooper Union’s student design archives. The Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California will be digitizing 12 major collections documenting the evolution of software, and the Indiana State Library will be providing access to the papers of William H. Hays, famous for establishing the “Hays Code” of acceptable content for the motion picture industry in the 20th century.

Purdue University received a grant for three-year project to run the Archives Leadership Institute, a one-week summer program to provide professional development for tomorrow’s archives leaders.

Two grants went to projects to increase public engagement with historical records. St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York will undertake North Country at Work,” a project to document the traditions and history of labor and industry in the Adirondack region. The Museum of Chinese in America will implement programs and education workshops aimed at preserving, digitizing, and showcasing family and community history and culture through its “Our Family Treasures” project.

Grants went to 14 documentary editing projects to publish the papers of key American figures, including Dolley Madison, Walt Whitman, Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Freedom History project founded by the late Ira Berlin.

Christopher Eck, Executive Director of the NHPRC, presented the grant applications and policy issues to the full Commission.  The Archivist of the United States, David S. Ferriero, is the Chairman of the Commission. Established in 1934, the NHPRC awards grants for preserving, publishing, and providing access to historical documents.