31 Projects in 14 States Awarded $9.1 Million to Support Humanities Preservation Efforts
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) today announced that cultural institutions in 14 states, the District of Columbia, and Guam will receive $9.1 million for 31 projects to preserve and increase public access to humanities collections and to create humanities research tools and reference works.
"Preserving significant cultural resources--from Appalachian history and culture to a network of archival collections in the Pacific Northwest--ensures that this and future generations have access to the cultural legacy of our nation and our world," said NEH Chairman Bruce Cole.
Supported by NEH grants, the University of Wisconsin, Madison, will compile the fourth volume of the History of Cartography; the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, will create an online database of legal documents about slaves and free blacks in fifteen former slaveholding states; and the New York Public Library will preserve and microfilm its collection of deteriorating volumes on the history of banking and finance. The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., will create an online edition of some 7,200 "My Day" newspaper columns written by Eleanor Roosevelt; California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, will create digital images and online finding aids for its collection of manuscripts by and about California architect Julia Morgan (1872-1957). The American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Mass., will create a machine-readable catalog of all books, pamphlets, and broadsides printed in the United States and Canada between 1801 and 1820; the University of Chicago will prepare a comprehensive historical dictionary of Hittite, the earliest written Indo-European language that is based on all known cuneiform texts dating from 1650 to 1180 B.C.E.
Several projects also have received additional offers of federal matching funds totaling $950,000; institutions receiving such offers must raise money equal to the federal funds from individual, foundation, or corporate donors. A state-by-state listing of awards is available here.