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NEH & Hawaii

Between 2000 and 2010, institutions and individuals in Hawai’i received $10.4 million from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Hawai’i Council for the Humanities for projects that explore the human endeavor and preserve our cultural heritage. Below are some examples.

  • About 200,000 pages of historic Hawai’ian newspapers such as the Hilo Tribune and the Honolulu Republican from 1880 to 1922 are being digitized at the University of Hawai’i, Manoa, with support from a $610,920 grant. This work is part of the National Digital Newspaper Project, an NEH collaboration with the Library of Congress.
  • Twenty-five college-level faculty explored Silk Road history in a five-week summer institute supported by a $199,607 grant and organized by the East-West Center Honolulu. The institute was hosted by the Asian Studies Department, a collaboration between the Center and the University of Hawai’i.
  • The Friends of Iolani Palace received a grant of about $4,500 to acquire storage furniture and environmental monitoring equipment for the collections at Iolani Palace, Honolulu, a National Historic Landmark.
  • In collaboration with the Redlands Institute, the Kohala Center at Kamuela is using a start-up grant of about $30,000 to plan a cross-disciplinary, cross-cultural “Digital Collaboratory” that will provide a geospatially referenced database of the island of Hawai’i that will be accessible to scholars, scientists, teachers, students, and the public.
  • Kinship and lineage in Huizhou Prefecture during the Ming dynasty was the subject of a $40,000 fellowship awarded to Qitao Guo, a professor at the University of Hawai’i, Manoa. Guo reviewed genealogies in Huizhou, China, performing research that provides the basis of a book in preparation, Community, Culture, and Commerce: The Rise of Elite Lineages in Ming-Dynasty Huizhou.
  • Assisted by a $266,500 grant, the Kona Historical Society, in Captain Cook, developed interpretive materials such as a living history presentation, on-site exhibitions, a publication, and a website about the Kalukalu Ranch Homestead and the nineteenth-century H. N. Greenwell General Store and Ranch.
  • The Lyman Museum and Mission House, Hilo, received $40,000 to plan Sense of Place and Local Identity. This project included a permanent exhibition in the museum’s Island Heritage Gallery, a smaller traveling exhibition, a website, and public programs.
  • Hawai’i History Day, now in its 20th year, promotes civics education and state history, reaching over 7,500 students through lesson plans and teacher workshops.
  • The Hawai’i Council for the Humanities participates in and administers the award-winning Literature and Medicine program at Queen’s Medical Center and Kahi Mohala Behavioral Health Center. Literature and Medicine seeks to improve patient care through facilitated discussion of great literary works among health-care professionals.
  • The Hawai’i Council for the Humanities and the Honolulu Academy of Arts have created Picturing Hawai’i, a localized version of NEH’s Picturing America program. Picturing Hawai’i offers teachers a curriculum that uses art works from the Honolulu Academy of Arts to supplement lessons in history, fine arts, language arts, math, and science.